The Antiquities Acquisition Business
by Rizzlemonster
Summary: In an ancient world there was a myth about a ship, a treasure, and a hidden kingdom. Teasure hunter and risk taker Eren Jeager finds himself in a tight spot when all hell breaks loose at the discovery of new leads to the key of an unforgettable treasure, one that can claim his life if he's not too carefull. This is a RIREN fic! slow build. Rated M for voilence, death & smut
1. Chapter 1

The idea for this fic has been in my mind for some time but I never really did anything with it. I am a HUGE Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, and let's not forget Uncharted fan! So I figured why not write a Riren fic revolving some weird ass treasure hunt or something of the sort. Besides I like learning stuff about the world, and I adore myths and treasures! Most things about the treasure's or places mentioned are true, however I will play with some facts when I see fit, so don't flip when some things don't add up hahaha (As in several myths or legends could be combined or other stuff could be adjusted so it makes more sense, … or less)

Eren is around 24 and is slightly smaller than Levi, yes, the midget is not a super midget anymore and yes he's 34.

_These are thoughts, so hope that's clear =)_

This is my second fanfic, the first being; The Mad Titans and the World of Tomorrow =) for those who know me cheers! And I hope u'll like this one too hahaha~ for those who don't likewise.

Please review if you like it, then I know if it's worth writing, because all the research is quite a hassle hahaha not that I mind much… I like digging through the Internet hahaha

**Short Summary;**

In an Ancient world there was a myth about a ship, a treasure, and a hidden kingdom. Treasure hunter and risk taker, Eren Jeager finds himself in a tight spot when all hell breaks loose at the discovery of new leads to the key of an unforgettable treasure, one that can claim his life if he's not too careful. This is a Riren fic!

Note; I hope all these chapters will be just as long as this one!

* * *

**The Antiquities Acquisition Business**

_**Chapter 1**_

It was a hot day, scratch that it was a very hot day, and if Eren had to compare it with anything it reminded him of the scorching Sahara desert, which burnt you to a bloody crisp before you could say water. But he was not in said desert, no, right now he was getting of the plane on Sultan Ismail Petra Airport, an airport near Kota Bharu, Malaysia. The sun kissed the asphalt under Eren's torn black All Stars, so-called indistructable shoes. Now Eren knew that wasn't true, however on all of his travels, the best shoes for his adventures had always been these trustworthy pieces of shit. Life worked in misterious ways, so did these shoes. They'd stay in one piece during dangerous expiditions, during swimming, fights, and walking on off road, and off road meant; swamps or other crazy things what regular people regarded as life threatening situations. No, these shoes survived all that, but one time, Eren stood on one of his shoelaces while he walked and his whole thing tore appart. Damned shoes.

Well, he had better things to worry about at the moment. He walked towards one of the old terminals of the airport where he'd meet up with his childhood friend Armin Arlette, who'd asked him to come here as fast as he could. He sounded quite nervous over the phone, so he figured it was very important. It was either something good or… yeah, let's not go there. Eren sighed. He hoped his friend had not worked himself into trouble, at least not into trouble where there was noway out, those were the worst kinds.

He slung his rather small brown leather backpack over his shoulder nonchlantly and marched towards the old building. He occasionally looked behind him, watching carefully if no one followed him. Nothing. Good. He only heard his own footsteps on the hard contreet with the crushing sounds of sand and rocks squashed beneath the rubber sole. All of his butons on his off white henley shirt were undone and he had his sleeves rolled up in a sloppy fashion till just above his elbows. The bottom of his grey demin jeans were almost completely walked off, and showed severe signs of wearing near his knees. It looked old and worn, and it was, but it was the best damn jeans one could wear during long travels.

He checked the time on his leather watch he wore on his left wrist, he had to look twice as a large crack ran through the glass blocking a clear view. Apparently walls and watches did not go together so well, so did Eren and taking on four men in hand to hand combat. They were drunk and so was he, it was innevitable. Or so he explained it to Armin and to his sister Mikasa.

It was just passed 2pm, in less than an hour the hottest time of day would come to pass. Thank god. He adjusted the leather cuff underneath his watch a little. He wore it because the watch itself was slightly to big and he was too lazy go get it fixed. This worked just fine. He ran his hands through his messy mob of brown hair when he finally reached the large building. He scanned the walls for an entrance.

He dug into his jeans pocket with his hand and fished out a wrinkled piece of paper.

_14:30 S.I.P Airport, old terminal_

That's all it read. It was Armin handwriting, one of the reasons Eren could still read it. His own looked like a todler's stickfigure or many of them in a row. Aniway, it looked like brail.

'Still a tad early.' He shrugged. What a surpise, Eren Jeager was on time. He never was, it was one of his lousy traits. He laughed, clasped and rubbed his hands together when he spotted a door at his far right. He opened the door slowly, his eyes narrowed when the old wooden door cracked loudly at the sudden intrustion. 'Shitty door, shut up.' He mumbled to himself. He pushed it open faster to get it over with, luckily the creaking sound subdued. He closed the door in a similar fashion.

The large terminal was far from empty old boxes, crates and furniture was stacked in the hallways. Eren looked at the door he'd just come through. An emergency exit sign hung above it, and a map of the terminal beside it.

He smirked 'Bingo.' He glanced at it briefly and released an annoyed sigh when the building showed to be rather complex. 'Great meeting place when you only mention the airport and the terminal Armin. Great job. Screw gate number or toilets thingies, no just mention the whole damned building, he'll figure it out.'

He ran over several options, and picked out the place that seemed most logical for a meeting point. 'Think strategic.' He huffed. 'Look for the one thing that's not on here.' His emerald eyes fell on one of the outer parts of the old buidling. 'Should be around here…' he was looking for the security centre, of course any logical map on plain sight would not show such a place to visitors. He guessed it was situated on the 3rd floor since there were about four, and when he was outside he had seen the three lower floors were all similar, however the map showed different. The map showed the 3rd floor had the same design as the 4th, it was slightly smaller in the left and he was certain it had to be there. Leave it to Armin to choose a place.

He made his way up the dark staircases with nothing more than his bashed up Iphone for some sort of light. He couldn't use the flashlight app since the flash was missing entirely. Eren wasn't good with expensive stuff, or stuff that could break easily. His Iphone screen was cracked on almost all sides and he'd even cut himself on it once, leaving a nasty gash in his thumb. But again, he was too lazy too get it fixed and too greedy to buy a new one. It would only break anyway. He was right. Mikasa and Armin agreed without a second thought.

On the 3rd floor the halls were empty and full of dust, making Eren wrinkle his nose. He squazed his eyes shut and covered his nose and mouth when he felt a sneeze rise up. The nasty feeling passed, leaving Eren with tears in his eyes. There was almost nothing worse than waiting for a sneeze that never found its way out. Except having to do a number two with the lack of toiletpaper, or of course driving something that looked like a scooter on so-called highway in India while being chased by pissed of people you'd just robbed. Now those were memories.

He had made it to the security centre, his eyes ghosted over the hall to see if there was any sign of life. When he failed to see anything of the sort he proceeded to the blue metal door. He grabbed the doorknob and turned it slowly, when hearing the soft click he push the door open without a sound. He peered inside, noticing it was rather dark. He stashed away his phone in his backpack, but not before putting it on silent -he mentally wanted to slap himself for only thinking of that now- and put the bag down next to the door. He tiptoed through the dark and unfamiliar space until he reached a second door in the back of the room. He heard soft whispers, the two sounded hurried, as if they were nearly out of time. One voice Eren recognised as Armin's though the other belonged to a young woman he'd never met. He knocked the door twice, with a long pauze inbetween. Something he'd discussed with Armin a long time ago.

'He's here.' He heard Armin whisper. Footsteps neared the door before it was opened. 'Hey, took you long enough.' A smile crept on his friends face. His blond hair was messy and his cheeks were smeared with some sort of dark dust.

'What? If anything I'm early. And you look like shit. Oh, and hai!' he greeted his friend with a short hug. 'It's good to see you.'

'You too.' came Armin's short relpy. He noticed Eren peaking at the young woman behind him. 'Ah, this is Dr Carolina, she's specialized in ancient meteorology.'

'Nice to meet you, I'm Mina Carolina.' The black haired woman greeted him, she extended her small hand, which Eren took in his and shook her hand while he nodded his head.

'Well hai, I'm Eren.'

'I've heard loads about you.' She nodded towards Armin, who smiled.

'Guilty as charged.' He raised his hands in his defence.

Eren shrugged as his friend's action. 'Don't get me wrong…' he directed his attention back towards Mina -Oh, Dr Carolina, excuse me- and continued 'So you're some kind of weather reporter of the times of old?' it came out more as a harmless question than a statement, but he could see her eyes twitch in annoyance. Woops. He was never really a star with words. _What did I do wrong?_

He shot Armin a I-probably-shouldn't-have-said-that look and Armin anwered with a No-you-shouldn't-have look and shook his head to make it even more clear. _Gee thanks for the warning._

'I'm sorry?' Oh, here came the rain. _Fuck my life._ 'I study the scientific aspects of the atmosphere during-' _Dear god, shut up._ Was all that filled Eren's brain. He couldn't care less what she studied as long as she'd remain silent.

He heard Armin stiffle a chuckle, his friend had noticed him not listening to a word the poor woman said. He rolled his eyes at him and signed it would only be a few more seconds before she'd cooled off.

'Yeah so…' Eren interrupted her 'What brings me here?'

Before Mina –Dr Carolina, excuse me yet again- could raise her voice again to annoy the crap out of the brunnete, Armin saved the day, or at least the afternoon.

'You remember we once talked about Estevao da Gama?' Armin asked Eren with a glint of excitement in his bright blue eyes.

'Hm? The govenor of the Portugese Coast during the 1530's?' Eren remembered vaguely.

'1529 till, …15-something, till he dissapeared.' He corrected.

Eren rolled his eyes. Of course he was off one year. One freaking year! 'Yeah, I do, the one of the attack on the Ottoman fleet. He dissapeared when he went to India on July 9th, 1541, if I'm correct.' He peered at Armin who nodded.

'Very nice.' The blond said impressed. 'You actually listen to the things I say.'

Eren snorted at Armin's subtle joke. 'Well, if it's important.' He cocked his brow, a sligh smile tugged at his lips.

'You also remembered the name of his ship?' Armin went on.

'What's this, an exam?' it came out as a groan because, quite frankly, he'd forgotten. 'Something… I can't remember but I do know this ship disseapered in 1511.'

'Exactly. But I'm positive that if you hear the name, you'll never forget it again.'

'Okay. Surprise me.'

'I'll give you some hints. She went on the conquest of Goa, in 1510.' When Eren just narrowed his eyes with a I-still-don't-know-it look plastered on his face, Armin continued. '… and the conquest of Malacca in the year of her disseaperance.' He said suggestively.

At that last part it finally clicked. The conquest of Malacca. 'Oh, shit.' Was all that past Eren's lips. his mind was in chaos. 'So. It's true?'

Armin nodded. 'Yes.'

'Fuck.'

'Are you in?'

'You know something about the Flor de la Mar, dude I am in!' it was chirstmas all over again. Flor de la Mar, translated, the Flower of the Sea, was a large ship over 400 tons of massive wood. It had participated in over nine years of desicive events, from battles to raids, in the Indian Ocean till it supposingly sank in 1511. Though Armin and Eren dared to believe it dissapeared instead of sank, however the fact remained that it was gone and no one knew where its location. It was last seen at the coast of Sumatra when it was returning to Portugal with treasures of its conquest in Siam. However in the Strait of Malacca she was caught in a storm and was wrecked, condemned to the depths of the sea, or as some believed still very much above the water. Flor de la Mar is claimed to be the richest vessel ever lost at sea, with its hold loaded with over 200 coffers of precious stones, and diamonds from the small half-inch size to the size of a man's fist. She was something Eren couldn't wait to lay eyes upon.

When he thought about it he knew exactly why Armin had contacted a meteorologist and mentally slapped himself, though it didn't make him respect her more. He was a complicated person with lack of people skills. Let's just say he was very selective at being social. Jep, that was it.

He glanced at her and she smiled. 'You see.' She said. Oh, he hated her already. _Cheeky girl._ _Let's just hope you're any good. Then you can say "you see" tsk, you see my ass. _He furrowed his brow and pursed his lips.

'Okay, so what do you got? Wait, question first, why are we here, when she was last seen near the Strait of Malacca? That's the total opposite side of Malaysia.' he folded his arms over his chest and put his weight on one leg, ready for an explanation.

'That is because there is a replica of the ship.' Mina stated proudly.

'Yeah, so, it's in that… what's it called, Malacca … marine, museum thing.' Eren tried, waving his hands at the lost name.

'The Malacca's Sea Maritime Museum.' Armin corrected him.

'Yeah, that!' Eren raised his arms to prove his point.

'She's being cleaned and repaired.' Mina continued. 'Not far from here.'

'Weren't you a weather forecaster?' Eren didn't want to be any ruder than he'd been but, woops, it was out there before he knew. Why did a weather person know so much about boats? Shit made no sense.

'Eren.' It was Armin that pointed him on his rude choice of words.

'What is wrong with you?' Mina asked aghast, eyes wide but stern.

'Oh, yeah.' Eren laughed at that question. 'I'm just rude. I guess, and I don't really care.'

'It's amazing you aren't dead yet.' Armin joked.

'Now that was rude.' Was his comeback at Armin.

'Hey, what can I say. I learn from the best.'

'You bet your ass, you do.'

'Guys.' Mina came in between the two good friends. 'There are more pressing matters at hand.'

'True.' Armin was back into the game. 'We think…' he pointed at Mina and himself '… that the ship is removed because someone wanted a closer look.'

'Hm. Removed you say, as in a closer look in the museum and got caught, or paid someone to have it removed so he could have a better look at it?'

'The latter.' Mina nodded at him.

'Interesting.' Eren smiled. He loved it when things became a little sinister, it excited him, and he couldn't wait to depart already, but he knew he knew way too little, and knowing too little in this type of business would only get you into trouble.

'Very.' Armin agreed, sensing the spark of interest on his adventurous friend. 'But we have no idea who is after this: friend or foe. It could even be someone we know.'

'My husband works at the harbour where she is kept, that's how we knew she was being removed in the first place.' Mina informed.

_Married, huh? Who'd wanna marry you? Good thing I didn't say that out loud. Thank god I ain't drunk. _'I want to take a peak at that replica. What about you guys?' a mischievous smirk spread across his lips and his eyes glinted with curiosity. He felt like a kid again, going on adventures, doing stupid stuff making people scold him. He loved making people hate him, a very bad trait in this business but he was so good at it. Fucked up talent number two.

'I knew you'd say that.' Armin said. 'But I am not going anywhere without a plan, you know that.' he grabbed his shoulder bag and ran through its contents, after a few seconds he pulled out a small package wrapped in cloth and handed it to Eren. 'Here, you'll need it.'

Eren removed the dirty fabric when he took the small gift. Wrapped inside he found a brown shoulder gun holster with a 45 Defender, his favourite gun. 'You know me too well.' He winked and tried the holster on. 'Say, Mina, what have you discovered about the storm the Flor de la Mar disappeared in?'

A smile crept on her facial features. 'It was no regular storm. More like a freak storm with no logical explanation. It was one that appeared out of nowhere, something like that is unheard of. I've made calculations of the density of the air back then, even made hundreds of digital scenarios of the collision of hot and cold air, winds, water streams, everything, but nothing made sense. In all of my research, it shows that there was no storm. Or if there was, nothing that, you know, makes a storm, was present, none of the critical factors were met. And I-'

'Shhh!' Eren interrupted her in the midst of her story. 'Someone's here. Hide.' He ordered both Armin and Mina.

Armin nodded as of immediate and did as he was told, Mina stood frozen in her spot, not knowing what to do in a situation like this. _Damned doctors._ 'Go!' Eren whispered harshly, if anything it only made her more scared. Armin appeared seconds later and took hold of her arm. 'Come on.' He encouraged her, and dragged her behind him. _Tsk, I'd leave you behind. Shit Armin, you're too nice_.

Eren carefully made towards the door, opening it slightly and peeked through the slim slit, into the room he'd entered before. _Safe._ He entered without a second thought, and proceeded through the darkness till he reached the next door, the one that lead to the hallway. He stopped in his tracks when he heard muffled footsteps. He narrowed his eyes and pressed his ear to the door. _They're moving away. Good._ But, just in case he pulled his gun, released the safety pin and slowly opened the door.

'Hey! Where are you guys going?' Called a loud voice from the other side of the door. Eren froze in mid-movement, his hand on the doorknob and the other held his Defender. He slowed his breathing and tried to relax his muscles, which were now so tensed they got sore. He slowly exhaled, releasing the knob, finger for finger. How did that bastard get there? How could he not have heard him? Had he been there all along? And if so, was he on guard? _Shit._

Blood was pumping through his veins at incredible speed, his senses seemed sharper and he was addicted to this type of thrill just as much as he loathed it. His hands did not tremble as he wasn't afraid at all, he was just tense, but scared, never. He retreated a little, pressing himself to the wall right next to the door and squatted slightly.

'Have you guys checked in here yet?' he could hear the man knock on the door. They weren't really being stealth. They seemed to be the type of guys that screamed they were near you and would hunt you down, you know, those shitty guys you see in movies. They were far from pros, or they were just being overconfident. Either way, they were annoying and had to go one-way or another.

He withheld himself from placing his finger on the trigger; nothing good came of that if he was surprised. Eren'd only give him away, he might as well just walk out and shake their hands, insulting them and get shot afterward. All in all the result would be the same, his fate would be sealed in a way he didn't like, but a dead man couldn't argue.

He listened attentively when he heard a sudden move of the footsteps right after the door, he tensed a little when he heard the metal of the doorknob, and he mentally screamed when he heard the click of the door pin and creaking sound of the wood as the door was pushed open fast. Before Eren could register the man's appearance, not caring who he was, or what job he had, his fist travelled up at incredible speed, connecting hard with the man's nose. A sickening crack filled the room, undoubtedly pointing out Eren had broken it, but he showed no remorse, no regret and readied his second attack. He swiftly slammed his elbow onto the man's head when he bended forward, stumbling in pain and too shocked to realize what his mistake was. Eren caught the man halfway and put him down as softly as he could. His eyes were directed at the now open door. He dragged the man to the middle of the room, so he was out of the way, and returned to the doorway. He looked around the corner to see if anyone had heard. The hall was empty, but he could hear some men talking in the distance. They called a name, once twice. Eren discovered too late that it was the name of the man he'd knocked out and cursed heavily when he saw five men approaching. Had they followed him, or where they here at random? What were the odds? Eren couldn't tell until he saw the weapons on those guys. They were stacked with the finest weaponry he'd ever seen. They'd even make the military jealous. Each possessed an AK of the newest series, a small handgun, which looked an awful lot like a revolver, and a hunting knife strapped to they're hips. _Fuck me._ Eren's lips parted in desperation. _This is not good._ He glanced at the door in the back, wishing Armin could escape safely. Was there even a back door or anything? Eren hadn't checked and once again he cursed, this time inwardly.

He couldn't close the door anymore, they would notice. They would also notice their friend or colleague or whatever he was gone, and they would defiantly notice the open door and sneak a peak, and boo! There was Eren. This day couldn't get any worse. Or so he told himself.

'Victor?' one of the men called out again.

'You think he slacked off?' Another one added.

'I don't know, he's probably checking things out by himself.' Said yet another one.

'Maybe he went in there.' this voice sounded deeper than all the others and it send shivers over Eren's spine. He knew they were talking about his hideout. It wouldn't take too long before they'd find him. His mind was in overdrive; he had to do something now. _What would they do if I fired some shots? Would they hide or would they charge? _That was the big question.

Eren lifted his gun and directed it at the open door. _Come on you bastards._ He pulled the trigger and fired two shots at the doorway. The men on the other side, yelled out in shock and confusion. Then the deeper voice took command. 'Shut up ladies, and get your asses in there!' so he was their leader, noted.

All hell broke loose when they did what Eren least expected, all barged through the small door opening like possessed men and screamed as they ran towards Eren.

He raised his gun and took down two, hitting one between the eyes and the other just above his right chest. The other two still came at him at full speed and before he knew what hit him, his face met the stone cold floor. One of the huge guys had tackled him to the floor. Quickly Eren reached for the knife at the man's hip and dragged it along the man's side. The man screamed in terror as his hands released his gun and clammed protectively over his burning side. Eren jammed the knife in the bleeding man's neck to end his torment, but lost hold of it when the man fell to the ground with a loud thud.

'Fuck.' He cursed. He regained composure when he realized he still held his gun. He had been so surprised he'd completely forgot about the damned thing to such an extent he hadn't even dropped it. He put a bullet in the remaining one and searched for their leader. Of course the guy hadn't bothered entering the room himself. _Coward. _

'The bastard's in here!' he heard him call. 'Sent reinforcements, now! 3rd floo-' He didn't allow the man to say another word; he barged through the door, jumped him, and worked his face like a boxing ball, gun still in hand. He only noticed that because his hand hurt like hell, and that wasn't just because he punched a bony cheek, but also because his fingers were squashed between those bones and the hold of his 45 Defender.

He spotted a Walky in the man's hand and grabbed it. 'Stazz come in.' it sounded. 'We're on our way.'

'God, Fuck, Shit!' was the best Eren could bring out. 'Fuck!' he had to keep himself from hurling the damned machine across the hall, instead he searched himself for a pair of earplugs, plugged those into the Walky and attached the device to his jeans. This way he could listen to their conversations without giving his location away.

He backtracked to the room he'd left Armin and Mina. 'Guys?' He whispered. No response. 'Shit.' He scanned the room as best as he could and found an open door next to some empty bookcases. 'Give me a fucking break.' They had left the room, going god knows where, hiding somewhere in this large building with people out there searching for them. Armin almost never had a gun on him, and he doubted Mina could do… well anything but scream and give Armin away. He had to get to them fast.

A cracked voice sounded through the Walky; "Sanchez for Stazz. Stazz come in, what is your current location? Over."

_On the ground, KO. _Eren thought to himself proudly, but listen attentively to the small portable radio.

"Yuri for Sanchez." Another voice cracked through the device, this one had a heavy Russian accent.

"Yeah?" came the reply of this Sanchez guy.

"Go check upstairs. Report back to me later."

"Copy that, sir."

It went silent after that. Okay, so this new guy was coming up, god knows who he took with him, or how many, but hey, at least Eren knew there were about three of these groups, of which one was already taken out. He estimated about 12 more, all armed like the previous group. 'Oh, why does this always happen to me?' he mumbled as he passed through the door Armin had used to escape. It led to another dark room. He wanted to call out but quickly dropped that idea; it was simply too dangerous. He had no idea how close this Sanchez guy and his gang was. As far as he was concerned he was already close enough to hear Eren move around. He moved around a little, searching the room and the few that came after, till he ended up on the hallway yet again. He was near a staircase and shook his head. 'No, please. Don't tell me you went down that Armin. Shit.' He groaned and ran his hand through his mob of hair.

He stored his gun in his holster; it seemed better to have a stealthy take on the situation. He was clearly outnumbered in every single way. Rash actions could lead to dire situations; he didn't really like those type of situations, not really.

He breathed in deep, debating if he should go downstairs or continue down the hall. Yes, people were coming up so going down could mean he avoided them, but all the same he could walk into them in that small and dark space. Same counted for remaining on the same floor, it would only be a matter of time before they caught him.

He heard commotion down the staircase, several men running up the stairs. Eren quickly returned to the last room he exited and hid behind the low walls, the top was made of glass, causing him to crouch down to remain out of sight. He heard the door open fast followed by a loud bang against the wall of being pushed open too hard. He peaked through the window just above his head and his eyes grew wide with recognition when he saw Armin, looking sweaty and scared.

'Hey.' Eren loudly whispered. 'Over here.' He knocked on the glass.

He saw Armin looking around frantically. _Poor kid._ Finally he caught sight of Eren and hurried into hiding beside his childhood friend.

'Had a though day?' Eren breathed, poking Armin in the side.

'Shit, Eren. They're everywhere. They saw me. They saw. Mina. Oh, shit, I lost sight of her.' it came out fast but Eren was able to understand every single word spoken.

'Shhh, it's okay. She's alright. She's probably hiding. Don't worry too much. We're gonna get out of this.' He tried to comfort Armin, but the look on the boy's face didn't change. _Great he doesn't believe me_. _Maybe he's too smart for his own good. He may be right. This doesn't look too good._

'He came through here!' a voice called from the stairs. _Not good. _Eren's lips formed a thin line when he took a quick look. 'Check the area! Search every fucking room till you found him!' about seven guys ran into the hall. Eren retreated behind the wall. _Not good at all._ Eren focused his attention at Armin, signing him the boy should only look at him. "Don't. Look. Over. The. Wall. Okay?" He signed with his hands. Armin managed to do just that and signed back; "I'm Fine." _Are you sure, you don't look like it._

Things took a turn for the worse when suddenly they heard a woman scream, out of sheer habit Armin jumped up at the sudden sound. Eren cursed silently, which turned into an entire string of foul words when he heard some shout; "Over there!" they'd been spotted. Perfect.

'Armin, run!' Eren yelled and pushed the boy into movement. They dashed through the gloom spaces and heard gunfire erupt behind them. One thing was certain, if they got caught they wouldn't be held prisoner. These guys where here out for blood.

Bullets pushed through the old walls like they were made of cardboard, tearing through old stacks of paper and furniture. Pieces of wood and paper darted around the room, making it hard to see where they were running. Eren nearly walked into a wall if it weren't for Armin's warning.

'Armin watch out!' this time it was his time to warn his friend, in front of him a giant man had appeared ready to gun them down. Eren grabbed a desk lamp from a bureau he passed by as he ran and hurled it at the figure in front of him. Armin ducked just in time and yelped when the lamp passed over his head. It hit the man quite hard, making him stumble backward a little.

'Stay!' Eren ordered Armin when he raced past him. He fished a chair from near him and kept on advancing without ever slowing down. He raised it like a baseball bat and smashed it again the man before he could regain his composure. The chair exploded into a mess of splinters and screws taking the man down. 'Come on!' Eren shouted after the man was out.

They continued they're race through a labyrinth of rooms, halls and staircases. Finally making it to the ground floor. Luckily they had only run into someone once and Eren had taken him out with some sort of old school desktop computer, not wanting to waste a bullet on him. Eren was starting to get worried about Mina's safety. Sure, he didn't like her but that doesn't mean she deserved a shitty fate. He bit his lip. A habit he had when he was stressed.

'Armin.' Eren said when they slowed to a walk. 'Here take this.' He handed the Walky over to him.

'Thanks.'

'Get out of here and search through the channels on this thing, try to get a hold of the channel of the airport security.'

'But… I-I'm not gonna leave you here.' Armin sounded hurt. He never liked to be left out in situations like this, but he knew it was for the better. He knew Eren cared too much for his safety and would do a lot better knowing he was safe.

'Armin. Please, you have to do this. You know better than anyone we can't save Mina without extra help. It's clear that these guys don't belong here, it's not like they're undercover or anything. They are proud of who they work for, it must be some sick ass warlord or whatever: someone with too much money. We need help.' Eren's tan skin was plastered with sweat. 'I'll meet up with you at the, what do they have everywhere. I dunno, Mac Donald's?' He nodded. 'Okay?'

'Okay.' Armin decided after some silence. 'Just… be careful alright?'

'Ha, when am I not?'

'I mean it.' Armin warned.

'Sure. Whatever you say.'

Eren wadded back into danger when he'd said his goodbyes with Armin. He needed to find Mina soon. He'd no idea what these men would do to her. He decided to count his bullets; Armin hadn't given him extra ammunition. He checked the magazine of his Defender, it was loaded with only two more rounds. _That'll have to do._ _Hadn't really thought that one through. Stupid. _

He reached for his backpack out of instinct and found it missing. He mentally slapped himself. 'Of course.' He moaned in frustration 'Why not?' the damned thing was still upstairs in the room where he'd left it, if, of course, it was still there.

Eren carefully traced back the way he'd escaped with Armin. Upstairs, on the second floor he heard some movement in the distance, but choose to ignore it for now.

Finding his bag was an easy job and so was finding Mina. He'd strapped his bag tight on his back, so it wouldn't sway too much. It would be quite annoying to say the least if he bumped into something. With gun in hand he waited around the far corner of the hallway, at the opposite end there was an open door that led into a room where Mina was held captive. It seemed almost every one had gathered there. Inside Eren counted up to seven men, though he was sure about the same number was out there still searching for him and Armin.

_I need to distract them, get them to leave that shitty room. I can't do squad when they're all in there._ He backtracked to one of the rooms behind him, searched for something small he could throw and went back the way he came. His keen eyes spotted a perfect place to target and he calculated his throw. 'Well, here goes.'

He threw a small wooden statue against the door at the end of the hall, to attract their attention first. When some of them came out when orders were barked, they moved down the hall, a total of five men, guns raised and all quite on edge.

_Great, now what? _Eren beamed into a corridor not far from him, he hid behind some half broken book cabinet and got ready to throw yet another wooden object, this time it was a desk name plate. This time Eren threw it at his previous hiding spot and pushed himself flat against the wall like a Gecko.

A ruckus of footsteps and voices passed him, it looked somewhat like a small army marching by. When they were past him Eren released a shaky breath, easing him up a bit. He dared to move when he couldn't hear the group anymore and peeled himself from the wall. He tiptoed towards the end of the hall and took a halt near his destination.

Eren could hear the young doctor plead for freedom. _Okay, there are still two inside and I've got two more rounds. Shit, if I fire them, they'll hear and come back. Why, why don't you ever think thinks through! Till the end! _

'What do you know about the storm?' One of the men asked, and that question turned young Jeager's heart to stone. 'The storm dr. Carolina, tell us, we know you've discovered something.'

_They know about the storm? Don't! If you tell them they'll kill you._ Eren thought. He could only hear her stammer nonsense. She was too afraid. She wasn't capable of thinking straight anymore. He couldn't blame her.

_I have to act before she starts talking._ He knew it sounded cruel, but it was the truth, her talking would get those men the information they wanted, and it would also mean they would rid of her. _Don't worry Mina, I'll get you out of there, I've got a plan!_

The treasure hunter squatted low, threw open the door and rolled into the doorway. Eren aimed at the two standing on guard, who were staring at him with bewildered eyes. They're guns were aimed to high, clearly not expecting someone to basically roll into their lair. Eren made quick work of it, gunning both down fast, taking advantage of his surprise attack.

First he stored his weapon, not needing it anymore since he was out of bullets. He dashed over to one of the dead man and took his old revolver, opened the mag, counted 4 rounds and then turned his attention to Mina. He freed her slim wrists of thick rope and tossed it behind him.

'Come on we have to go.' He said shaking her by her shoulders.

She stared blankly ahead. _Shit, we don't have time for this._ He snapped his fingers in front of her, trying to catch her attention. 'Hey, hello! Mina!'

'W-what… happened? Why are… t-they dead? Oh, my god are they?' she stammered, her hands were shaking. It was clear to him that she'd never experienced something like this, where sadly he'd experienced too many. He'd long gone stopped caring about shooting people. He understood that it was either he or they; there was no time for regret.

'Come on, let's go!' he hoisted Mina to her feet, letting her lean on him heavily so he could drag her along like a puppet.

'Did you…? You killed them?' she said in disbelieve. Eren chose not to answer her. It wasn't important for her to know at the time being, they just needed to get out of here; alive was preferred. Yeah, that would be perfect.

They slandered through dark halls, dusty rooms, and a loudly creaking staircase. Eren heard they were being chased and quickly dragged Mina out of the staircase when he heard them run down the metal stairs too. He closed the door behind them and barricaded it with anything he could get his hands on. He was only at the second item when he heard a loud crash against the door.

'Shit.' He pushed all his weight against it to prevent it from opening, but the table he'd set before it made it nearly impossible to put in all his strength. He lost his footing and he quickly stepped back letting one of their assaulters stumble out on the hall. Eren kicked the side of the man's head, spun around and barked at Mina to run, as of immediate if she'd love her life.

The sound of a gunshot tore through Eren's ears. His eyes darted towards the doorway and found yet another man standing there aiming his gun straight at them.

He grabbed the door and slammed it shut and fired two shots. He took Mina's hand after he heard a body slump against the door and started to run, until he felt a pull at his arm. 'Mina, we don't have time fo-…' his voice died off when he looked at her.

She'd clenched her free hand around her throat; blood stained her hand and fingers. It took a good two seconds for Eren to realize she'd been hit. She desperately tried to stop the blood from gushing out, pressing her hand on the wound as best as she could with a trembling hand. When she tried to speak no words came out, only a cough and Eren's eyes widened with horror as he saw blood bubble on her lips.

_Shit, this is bad. _'Mina, can you hear me?' he said with a trembling voice, obviously fearing the loss of her life. When she slumped against him he feared for the worse, her hand fell from her throat as she took sharp short ragged breaths. 'No, no, no, shit. Come on, don't do this to me. You're gonna be okay.' And when the life left her eyes he felt defeat wash over him. Eren laid her down carefully, cursing the fact that he couldn't take her with him. He did the next thing he hated doing to her; he searched her pockets. He took her cell phone, some cash, and her notebook. He also found a hotel key card. It read; Hotel Perdana Kota Bharu. She didn't have other things on her, which he could use.

He ran his fingers over her face, closing her eyes and placed a coin on each of her eyelids, as a token she could pass through to the afterlife. 'For the ferryman.' He bit his lip, guilt eating a way into his heart. He'd been mean to her and now look what had happened. He couldn't help things worked out the way it had, but it didn't make him feel better about himself.

He had to leave her when he heard commotion coming down the staircase and he darted through the hall. He knew they would chase him wherever he went. Concluding that he had to take them out he ran towards a small kitchen, he figured it was the old cafeteria of past employees, searched for a gas tank underneath on of the cooking pits and gave it a few suggestive pulls. He thanked who ever was up there it was old and rusty, he yanked the tank out, nearly fell sideways when he had misjudged the weight and made his way towards a refrigerator. Eren opened the white fridge and threw out some empty plastic cabinets and the sort, and placed the tank inside. He shoved the heavy machine, with its door still open, in front of the only door available in the room, which he slammed shut, barricading the entrance. He made sure he was loud enough they heard him and soon found he was right when he heard them scream; 'He's in here!'

'Don't let him get away.' Another one barked. Hm, these men weren't really nice, but then again, Eren had never really liked when there were a bunch of very angry men chasing you while shooting at you, with the clear intention of killing you. As you might have guessed, Eren liked to live, and planned to do so quite a few years longer, maybe 90, okay, that was kind of impossible, but 80? Yeah, that sounded nice.

'Assholes.' He muttered under his breath. After this, he was sure he needed a vacation, one which, did _not_, I repeat, did _not_ include him being hunted down like some rare panda. He moved away from the refrigerator as far as he could, in fact he didn't worry about the door one bit, instead he opened a window and grinned when he found himself on the first floor. _This might work._

He sat in the windowpane and shifted awkwardly, trying to find the best angle to jump down at._ I know it's just one freaking floor! But I don't want to break shit. _He remembered once Armin had jumped down a rock of what, 50 cm high and somehow landed weird, resulting in one broken ankle. Yeah, he couldn't use that right now.

Just when he'd found the perfect angle, gunfire erupted behind him. Seemingly the men didn't trust the door and just fired at will, but what they didn't know was that the gas filled fridge was like a stealth bomb, waiting for some action, and action is what it got, lots of it. When bullets pierced through the machine a spark of fire set the whole thing aflame, and boom, the men were no more, same counted for part of the walls, etc. and of course Eren, who practically flew out of the window screaming at the top of his lungs. And of course he forgot to land perfectly or anything near perfect, and landed hard on his ass. He bit down a scream and tears sprung in his eyes. He sat still for a few seconds, not moving, and just breathed in and out trying to fight the pain in his lower body. 'Fuck, I think I broke my ass…' he tried to get up when pain shot through his lower back. 'Ah, fuck…' he stumbled a few steps unable to walk properly because of the pain. After a while the pain lessened and he could walk normally again.

He pulled out his Iphone from his bag pack and called Armin, who picked up almost instantly.

'Eren? Where are you?'

'On my way as we speak.' He groaned when he misplaced his foot and his body didn't agree with it.

'Are you alright?' Armin sounded worried.

'Something like that, yeah.'

'And Mina? Is she alright?'

It remained silent for a while. Eren didn't really know how to say it. 'She… she didn't make it.'

'…' Now it was Armin's turn to remain silent.

'Listen.' Eren started. 'I need you to do me a favour.'

'…Ah… yes. What is it? But wait… tell me, what happened.'

'Later, I promise.' He assured him earning a sigh from the other as response. 'I am in great need…' he pulled at his dirty long sleeve, showing bloodstains, Mina's blood '… of a new shirt. Could you please do that for me?'

'All right, although I don't have much money.'

'Dude, as long it ain't pink, I don't care. Meet me at the front, I can't walk front, I'm not gonna walk through an airport like this.' And with that he hung up. The new terminal got closer and closer. He stripped himself of his gun holster, gun, and shirt. He wrapped his shirt around the other two and stuffed it in his bag and went on his way. Luckily it was very warm out, so walking around shirtless wasn't absolute hell, though he didn't like the fact he had scares all over his body from past adventures, but he'll just have to suck that up for now.

He spotted Armin waving with a white shirt above his head. _Nice. _He grinned and ran over.

'Thanks.' He grabbed the shirt and pulled it over his head. He studied it a bit and cocked his brow. 'I love Malaysia.' He said dryly, more in a reading voice than a judging one. The '_love_' was in form of a red heart, the letters were black.

'It's the only one I could afford.' Armin looked like a wreck.

'Are you okay?'

'Are you?'

'I don't know.' Eren was being honest, his feelings were all over the place, he was angry, tired, hungry, dreaded, and sad and he tormented by guilt. 'I'm sorry.' He finally said.

'You went back for her. That's more than a whole lot would have done.' Armin tried to comfort him with a broken voice. He wasn't mad at Eren, he just felt horrible about everything else. 'What about those guys?' his blue eyes stern, he needed to know where they were at.

'I think I…' Eren looked around a bit before he was sure nobody was near enough to hear them '…killed more then half of them. But I'm not sure, that place was like a fucking labyrinth, the only thing it missed was a Minotaur.'

That last part got Armin to chuckle. 'Ah, you're fine.' He knew as long as Eren could fool around, he was just fine. 'How many?' he added.

'Uh, I wasn't really counting on the go, but uh,… ten at the least. I think? No, wait. What? No. Ten. I dunno man.' Armin shook his head at that lousy answer.

'Alright. I'll go get us a cab and you… just wait here.'

'… And be pretty?'

'I don't care what you do.'

'That's mean.' Eren laughed. 'Do we have money for a cab?'

'No.' Armin said and eyed Eren.

'Okay. I get it, I'll knock him out.' He shrugged.

'I know.' Armin said as he turned on his heel.

Eren pulled out his cigarettes and lighter. It had been along time since he'd last smoked but he was convinced right now, it was the only thing that could calm him down at the moment. His hands trembled of the left over adrenaline; he always had this when he'd been through some hard times. Even so he lit his cig without a problem and took a long, deep drag, filling his lungs to the brim.

* * *

'Fucking hate flying.' A grumpy raven-haired man groaned angrily. He was sick of being airborne and was quite content his feet were finally touching solid ground. He passed through security without any hiccups, he had not checked-in any luggage so he could basically walk straight out of the airport. All he had brought was in his black leather weekend bag that slung over his shoulder casually. He was neatly dressed in a white blouse, dark blue pants, and a pair of dark brown suede shoes.

When he stepped outside warmth washed over him. He closed his eyes enjoying the warmth of the sun. He needed his holiday more than he needed anything, at least that was until he smelled smoke. He looked to his right and found a boy wearing an "I love Malaysia" shirt smoking. That seemed like a very good idea, not the shirt, that was hideous, but a cigarette, he couldn't say no to that.

He pulled his package of Lucky Strike from his bag and searched for a lighter, only to find none. He cursed inwardly. Just when he was about to ask the boy for fire his phone rang. _Great timing._

'573 verify.' A bored female voice sounded on the other side of the line.

'104 verified.' He was all he responded.

'Special agent Levi, this is Hanji speaking.' An all too familiar voice boomed through his phone. He knew it was her all along, even when she tried to sound professional.

'There have been signs of a bombing at your current location. The local airport security was reporting in about half an hour ago. Investigate the premises and report back to us within 120 minutes from now. Location: old terminal, as I said nearby. Do you accept this mission?' the cheery voice sounded.

'Are you serious?' he asked her in disbelieve. 'You do realize I'm on vacation.'

'Yeah, hence the question, not an order. Slacking off already?' she laughed.

'Why? Is local security not enough.'

'It was a makeshift bomb.'

'Terrorists?' she whispered.

'Could be. Do you accept this mission?'

'Fine, I'll see what I can do. But forget the 120 minutes, I'm smoking a cigarette first.'

'No can do, sir. Happy hunting.' She hung up.

Levi sighed deeply. _Well, so long vacation._ He peaked over at the boy once more and saw the kid light up another one. _Addicted much? Well, I'm one to talk._

'Hey kid.' He said while walking over and held his cigarette up suggestively. When the brunette turned towards him he saw the most gorgeous emerald eyes he'd ever gree- I mean seen.

'Fire? Ah, sure.' His voice wasn't too bad either. The kid fished his lighter out of his jeans pocket and handed him the metal object.

'So I take it you like Malaysia.' Levi couldn't help but ask. He received a vague stare, which was quickly replaced by a dashing smile.

'Ah, yeah. This.' The boy pointed at his T-shirt while he laughed. 'It's not really like I had a choice. They lost my luggage and I spilled tomato juice over my shirt. Some fat bastard sat down in his chair, … before me.' He gestured with his hands. 'It wasn't pretty.'

'Sucks.' Levi chuckled.

'Hey, now I got this awesome shirt.' He winked; his eyes flashed a brilliant green. _Shit, this kid is cute._

'Really, here I thought; poor kid with a shitty shirt.'

'That's… cruel.' The brunette grinned. 'Well the story gets even sadder. When I spilled it, I had to sit in the aircon wrapped in a blanket against the cold -I looked like a caterpillar, truly, no lies- and asked for a new drink. The lady went all the way back and got me my juice, I took one sip, bleg… turns out; I don't even like the fucking drink. How stupid is that?'

'Very.' Levi chuckled. 'And hopeless.'

'Eren!' A blond boy stood in the distance waving his hands above his head. 'Cab!' and motioned the brunette to hurry and move over to him.

'Ah, my ride.' The boy called Eren said. 'Was nice meeting you…' he narrowed his eyes, waiting for Levi to respond.

'Levi.' He finally said. 'It's nice to meet you too, Eren.' He handed the boy back his lighter and was surprised when Eren shook his head.

'Nah, you keep it. I don't really smoke anyway.'

Levi cocked his brow at that. 'You just smoked two cigarettes.' He deadpanned.

'Wow, you're such a stalker. Look, you got my stuff already.' Eren joked.

'I offered it back.'

'Such a gentleman.' Eren grabbed his bag and saluted him, he walked past him towards his friend yelling; 'Yeah, hold your horses!' turned back to him after a few steps and said loudly; 'Hey, there's a surprise for you on that thing. Take care, Levi! And I'm sure I'll see you again!' he waved at him.

'What makes you so sure?' Levi called back; he felt a smile tug at his lips. It had been a long time since any person made him this relaxed, this… happy?

'Goodbye!' The boy chose not to answer him and walked off, looking back once more and joined his blond friend, whose eyes darted from him to Eren, and said something, probably about their conversation. He watched the boy get into the cab and drove off.

'Wierdo.' He smiled. He turned back towards the airport and sighed. 'Well then, let's get to work.' And with that he walked back into that damned airport, postponing his vacation. He fiddled with the lighter and remembered Eren's words. 'A surprise?' he watched the metal thing, no wait, underneath there were 3 numbers 925, the number of pure silver. _Neat._ And when he glanced at the other side he saw some more numbers. He smiled. _Damned brat._ Etched on the side was the boy's phone number.

'Surprise indeed.'

* * *

Please Review, so I know if I should continue =)

I know I suck at writing fighting stuff, but I'll get better at it ONE DAY!


	2. Chapter 2

I hope you all have enjoyed chapter 1 =) it was quite a pill to write and excuse me for some stupid mistakes. When I re-read the whole thing I thought. FUCK! But hey =) it's hand-made hahaha what do you expect.

Luckily I was nearly done writing this chapter by the time I posted the first. I'm happy that some of you guys enjoy the fic, I will keep on writing it, but honestly I think the time in-between chapters could be a long wait. I want the chapters to at least contain 7K words, so I can shine light on more characters than just one.

Thank you for your kind reviews, follows and favourite(s) =) you make me happy to write.

I own nothing! But the story ofc. Enjoy, chapter number 2!

* * *

**The Antiquities Acquisitions Business**

_**Chapter Two**_

Levi ran his hand through his hair and rested at the start of his undercut. The sight before him wasn't pretty and it was certainly not what he had expected. Hanji had made it sound like it was something small, just a bomb was what he had in mind, but that to his dismay was not the case.

When he arrived there were some airport security guards, police officers, and staff of the maintenance crew outside. When Levi showed his ID briefly, flipping it out and in quickly, they reported what they'd seen, however, he still had to see it with his own two eyes. They reported eighteen victims; all of them deceased. They counted seventeen men and one woman. The strangest thing was, all the men were armed, and not just slightly, but with real proper stuff, and the woman had been unarmed and the only one with ID on her. She appeared to be a doctor; Dr Mina Carolina. She was well known in the province.

A blond woman walked up to him, she was quite short and had a serious look on her face. Her hair was tied back in a bun and long bangs covered the outer parts of her cheeks. She had piercing blue eyes that barely held emotion.

'My name is Annie Leonhardt, I am the head of the International Security Department. Please allow me to accompany you inside, I know the building inside out and of course the locations of the…' she searched for a proper word. 'Murders.' She decided as she pushed her hands in her black pants pockets. Further more she wore a black blouse with a bulletproof vest, with on the back "Airport Security" in white capital letters. Her uniform contained several golden symbols, stating her rank as head officer and the combat boots she wore added to her though look. She wasn't one to mess with.

Levi nodded, accepting her offer. 'Show me the way.' He followed her as she started walking into the building. When they were inside Levi asked her what the others outside would be doing.

'They will stand guard and secure this building, but for now they are quite shaken, none of them have ever seen something like this before and are quite scared. They are going to have to enter the premises eventually, to check the security cameras or what is left of them anyways. Old buildings often have lacking machinery.'

They walked all the way upstairs. 'We are going to the third floor first. It gets worse the closer we get to ground level, I think it started here and escalated the closer someone got to escaping.'

'Sounds reasonable.' Levi agreed. 'So I take it the bombing was on the ground floor.'

'First.' Annie corrected but nodded at him. 'Here we are.' She pointed ahead with her flashlight. 'Number one.' There was a man clad in black on the floor. His eyes were wide open and it was obvious life had forsaken him. His face looked bashed up, blood had blacked and covered half of his face like a mask.

'Number one?'

Annie nodded. 'Two to six are inside.' She pointed at the door not far from them.

'I thought you said things escalated as we got closer to ground level.'

She turned and smiled at him. 'I wasn't talking about an increase in the number of victims per floor, Special Agent Levi.' She shook her head and scoffed. 'I was talking about the way they were murdered. You'll be surprised to see what kind of explosion took place. I myself was quite impressed at the sight. It's not something often used and certainly not everyone is familiar with it. I believe the suspect was in great peril and had to do something extreme to make it out alive.' She took a short pause, scratched at her slight hooked nose and continued when Levi didn't respond. 'I think you'll be quite interested in one of the victims.'

'The doctor?' he earned a simple nod, answering his question. 'How so?'

'You'll see it when we get there. First, in here.' They walked inside the dark room. Annie handed Levi a flashlight, he thanked her and switched it on.

'Three were shot, one stabbed, and the other one came to his end by hand to hand combat.' She remarked when they were standing in the midst of the dead.

'I'm guessing the suspect shot the first few and was overrun and thought of other ways to dispose of them.'

'So are my assumptions.' Annie crossed her arms over her chest, still holding the flashlight somehow.

'Hm, take me to that doctor.'

'I'll show you the site of the explosion first. It's not far apart. It says something about the personality of the person we're dealing with.'

They made their way to the first floor. The first thing Levi noticed was the smell of burned flesh. The stench was almost unbearable and nearly made him gag.

'Here.' She offered him a white piece of cloth, when he took it she pulled out another one and bound it over her mouth and nose against the awful smell.

'To the cafeteria.' She said dryly and walked ahead, motioning him to follow. When they turned around a corner, Levi could already see the damage. He saw four men, or at least, what was left of them, each burned, eaten by the flames. The walls were blackened by fire and the doorway was blown out completely by the blast.

Annie led him into a small kitchen. Scatted across the room were bricks, wood splinters, metal shards, and thick layers of ash.

'Look around and what do you think is missing?' She asked him. Levi's silver eyes darted around the room, scanning his surrounding thoroughly.

'If I don't take into account the fact that this place has been abandoned for a while, I'd say the refrigerator…' he walked around a bit. 'What did you use for the cooking pit?' he asked but already knew the answer.

'Gas.' She confirmed his thought.

'You say he or she made a bomb of a fridge and a gas tank?'

She nodded. 'As I said, quite something eh?'

'This person knew he was being shot at, so knew it could be used as a trigger to set of the bomb.' He sounded almost exited. 'However there's a change it couldn't have worked, if for instance the men in the hallway back there…' he gestured at the hall '… stood too far away.'

'Yes, that's true. This kind of trap requires a spark, which only occurs when the shooters were near. It was a gamble.'

'Quite a dangerous one.'

'That's why I assumed that person was desperate.'

'Interesting.' He took out his phone and turned to the blond officer. 'Do you mind if I take some pictures for further investigation. I know someone at headquarters that is going to love this.'

'Be my guest, special agent.' She motioned a go-ahead and waited just outside the kitchen until he was done. 'Ready so soon?' she asked when he emerged after what seemed two minutes. When he nodded she said; 'Alright, up to the doctor.'

Levi was left mystified when he gazed upon the lifeless body of the female doctor. It was obvious what had been the cause of her death but that wasn't what intrigued him. He'd never seen something like this before. On each of the victim's eyes lay a coin.

'This is Dr. Mina Carolina. She works northwest from here near the coast. We still have to notify her family. As to why she was here, no idea.'

Levi studied Annie while he handed her the white cloth. She seemed like an honest woman. 'What about these coins?' Levi asked. 'Is this the work of a serial killer?'

'Could be, as I said, I have no idea what brought Dr. Carolina here. Could be anything, but I do know, that those coins are a token of respect and care. Some of my friends once told me that in ancient Greece, and I am sure they mentioned other's too, that if one passed away their souls travelled to the underworld, and in order to pass some kind of river, they needed to pay the ferryman. Otherwise they'd become wondering spirits or get swept along in the river. Something like that.' she pulled up her shoulder at the last sentence.

'As payment?' it all sounded crazy to Levi. Back in Europe he was mostly sent on missions as a hit man, to take out drug lords, scum that ran businesses underground, and people alike. He'd never seen anyone of them putting coins on their victim's eyes. _Weird people_. Was he dealing with a mentally disturbed person, a psychopath perhaps?

'As payment.' She confirmed. 'I know it sounds weird, but some people are made to stand out.' His thoughts went straight back to the brat in his 'I love Malaysia' shirt. He was quite something and defiantly not like the others. He narrowed his eyes. Maybe he should give the kid a call. Eren, the boy with those captivating emerald eyes. "I'm sure I'll see you again" he'd said, maybe it was true.

'I believe that somehow…' Levi started. '…The bomber was connected to Ms Carolina and possibly was the one to do this.' He meant the coins by that. 'She was held captive by these men.'

'Or protected.' Annie said.

'No, look at her wrists.' There were red marks around her wrists; her hands had been bound. 'She was shot during their escape and the bomber could not do anything but leaving her.' he turned to Annie, who remained expressionless.

'Interesting.' She simply said without sounded astonished. 'You think these men were out to kill her instead of protecting her? So they might be the killers?'

'You mean to say you think she was murdered by the bomber?' he asked.

'Could well be the case.'

'I will send someone with lab experience, bodies and such. She can take a look at the bullets of all the victims. If we can identify the bullet, we can identify the weapon and possibly the shooter. It almost never occurs both partied posses the exact same fire arms.'

She hummed in agreement.

'I'll inform you about her arrival later.'

She nodded at that. 'Sure.'

They walked outside into the sun. Levi handed her flashlight back.

'Now if I may excuse myself. I have some phone calls to make.' The blond haired woman said.

It was Levi's turn to nod. 'You're excused. We'll keep in touch.' He handed her his card and he turned towards the airport again. He had to call Hanji and inform her of her flight to Malaysia. She'd be thrilled to be back in the field again, and quite frankly if he had to have a partner, she was the best one could wish for. But first things first, he was on holiday, he needed to relax after countless of missions in the heart of London. He didn't want the cold, he didn't want the busy people running around the streets, and he didn't want his tiny apartment in Notting Hill. He wanted everything London couldn't offer and quite frankly he'd no idea what that something was.

* * *

Stealing a cab didn't seem to come without some troubles. First the cabdriver was a lot tougher than first anticipated. Armin of course was no help at all, which meant Eren had to do everything by himself and fighting off a cabby in such a confined place was not a jolly task. When Eren wanted to kick the man from the back seat, the cabby took a sharp turn, making Eren smash his front mirror to pieces with his indestructible All Stars. The large man took hold of his leg with one hand and left Eren trashing his captive leg like he was possessed by a demon. 'Ahh!' Eren yelled in frustration. 'Let go!' and with that he lifted his other leg so he lay on his back on the backseat of a cab on a rather crowded road, and tried to kick the man yet again; to people passing by he looked like a giant unhappy baby. This time he succeeded and the happy coloured car swayed to the left, resulting in a lot of angry drivers honking at them. _Woopsy_.

When the cabby threw his hands back on the wheel he saved their lives by avoiding getting hit by a bus.

'Thank you.' Eren said politely before he kicked him again, this time with such force he K.O.'ed the poor dude, and as of that moment, both Eren and Armin never again forgot it wasn't such a bright idea to knock a cabby out while both in the backseat, because they both discovered that moment, that a car couldn't drive itself. _Fuck logic! _Eren thought when he saw the cabby's head loll from side to side.

'Oh, Armin.' Eren said dryly. 'I think we have a problem.' His lips stood in a thin line.

'Hm.' the blond knew what Eren talked about.

And before Eren could say another word, the car darted to a sharp right, leaving the two boys to scream out in fear. Eren climbed into the shotgun seat one way or another and tried to pull the unconscious man from his seat. When he couldn't move the guy he shot Armin a glare. 'Help, please!'

'Ah, yeah. Sorry.' With the help of Armin it still took some time to push the chubby man from the driver's seat into the seat where Eren stood –Somehow, he's very flexible- and they dodged some cars on the opposite lane, because… they were driving on the wrong side of the road; it was that simple.

Eren sighed in relief when he'd finally managed to get into the driver's seat. 'Shit, someone should tell him to lay off the cookies.'

'Or you should hit the gym.' Armin laughed.

'Growing bolder by the second, are you?' Eren grinned, smiling up at the front mirror only to find it broken. _Right. Forgot about that._

Eren put Armin and him out of danger by driving on the right side of the street, which was the left. _Of course._ Eren occasionally forgot this too and nearly got them killed on numerous accounts.

'This isn't Berlin, Eren! Shit, they drive left. _Left_!'

'I noticed!' he yelled back! 'You're not helpi- AH!' because Eren took a sharp turn the cabby slumped against him, squashing him against the door. He lost grip over the wheel and nearly hit an old woman crossing the street, who threw her walking stick at their car, hitting it in the back window. It cracked, Eren thought she was a demon after that.

'FUCK!' Armin. Get. Him. Off!' the man's head bumped Eren in the face. 'AH!'

Armin tried not to laugh; it all seemed so ridiculous. Leave it to them to steal a cab. Who would have guessed this would happen? He thought only weird stuff like this happened in those B-ranked movies, maybe even C-ranked, but with Eren you never knew what could happen.

Armin pushed the guy off Eren, _with_ Eren's help of course, and of course it included some violent swinging of the car.

'You're a horrible driver.' Armin confirmed looking stupefied at his friend's driving skills, or the sheer lack off.

'Yeah, you should have seen my driving lessons back in Germany. My poor instructor never wanted to see me again. All nine in fact.' He laughed. 'Bastards.'

'But you did pass eventually.' Armin patted Eren on his shoulder from the backseat.

'…' Eren remained silent.

'…You did, right?'

'I do have my license, if that's what you mean?' Eren said innocently with big eyes and all.

'No. I mean you have seven passports of which only one is real, what's it gonna take for a hundred driver's licenses? Did you, or did you _not _pass your driving… everything? Exam? Theory? Did you even pass theory.'

'Theory. Yes! I must sit in the car. I must have a key. I must do something in order to drive… oh, and I shouldn't hit anything/one, and if I do, drive away fast.'

Armin slapped his hand against his forehead. 'Oh my god, Eren! You're hopeless!'

'If it makes you feel better, I only failed eleven times.'

'It doesn't'

'Okay.'

'Next time I drive.' Armin offered with a red forehead.

'And also knock out the dude, I wanna sit back and watch too once.'

Before Armin could muster up a comeback his phone rang, well, a phone rang, considering the fact Armin and Eren both had the same ringtone. Neat.

'Is that yours?' Armin asked.

'Mine? No, who'd wanna call me, I'm an asshole.'

'True.' And it was true again; it was Armin's phone. 'You are an ass.' He said and showed Eren his phone.

'Oh, feel popular.' Eren teased from behind the wheel. 'I'm driving without a license.'

He accepted the call, ignoring Eren. 'Hello? This is Armin.' He punched Eren in the shoulder when he saw him dramatically playback'ing his sentence.

'Hello? Hello? This is Armin.' Eren sang with one hand up near his ear, with his index finger and pinkie sticking out, like a phone. He scrolled down the window and stuck out his 'phone'-arm. 'You get it?' he continued. 'Arm in.' he pulled his arm inside 'Arm out!' and he stuck it out again nearly slapping a motorcyclist from his bike and couldn't help but laugh, even though he knew about the dangers.

Armin shook his head. He didn't know how he could survive this idiot any longer, how had he all these years?

'What?' Armin sounded worried at something someone said over the phone.

'Hey I'm making a joke here, pay attention. Oh, who is it?'

'Annie.' Armin quickly answered. 'I'll put her on speaker.'

'Oh, okay. I'll shut up for now.' Whatever it was, Annie meant business. And business meant seriousness. Well, most of the time.

* * *

Annie grabbed her phone shortly after Levi had left. She'd walked around the old terminal towards a black jeep and stepped inside. She scrolled through her address book and selected the number she needed. The phone rang shortly.

'Hello? This is Armin.' A boy on the other side of the line said and she heard someone in the background talking, she figured it was Eren.

'Armin, this is Annie. I have some bad news.'

'What?' he sounded rather worried, his voice nearly squeaked and she was sure it was a few good tones higher than usual.

'I tried to cover for you guys but the security had informed some kind of special agent. I took a stroll with the guy and he's good, really good. He assumed the bomber, Eren was connected with the death of Mina, thinking they knew each other and she died when they tried to escape. He's flying someone over to research the bodies.'

'… Oh, shit.'

'Eren should have never used something that explodes at an Airport. He's completely insane.' She heard Eren wail at that comment and assumed she was on speaker. 'Yes, Eren, you should have known better. You know there is only so much I can do. Reckless behaviour attracts unwanted attention. I warned you before.'

'Thank you Annie for telling us.' Armin sounded sincere. 'Be careful, if an agency is taking over the crime scene, something like the Feds, they are going to discover you don't work there. You got to disappear Annie. I'm sorry for asking you to take care of this.' He sounded sorry all right. Sometimes she wondered why someone like him got dragged into situations like this, but then again, he was friends with Eren.

'It's all right. I can take care of myself, and I owed you one Armin. Eren!' she raised her voice. 'If you ever bring Armin into some sick shit by this, I'm going to kick your ass so hard, you're never gonna sit again.'

'Woooow!' Eren shouted, he sounded distant, like he was far from the microphone of the phone. 'Cruel!'

'Armin, you need to find other friends.' Annie suggested.

'Hey, I can hear you!' Eren barked offended.

'Don't do anything stupid.' She said, but knowing Eren, that was impossible.

'Like stealing a cab?' Eren laughed.

She wasn't sure if he was joking. 'Armin. Please tell me he's kidding.'

'Umm… w-well…' The boy stuttered. 'We d-didn't have money… and-'

'For crying out loud! Are you two out of your right minds?'

'I am!' she heard Eren shout. 'Oh shit we gotta run, I mean drive!' she heard police sirens in the background and tires screeching. They were in trouble all right.

'Guys!' she shouted through her phone.

'I'm sorry Annie. We have to go! I'll call you later okay?' And the line went dead after Armin's last sentence. Leaving her cursing at her phone and at the beeps that singled the line was dead, but she knew there was nothing more she could do. She started her car and left the airport behind her as fast as she could.

On the road she dialled another number.

'Berthold.' She said as the other picked up. 'I need a favour.'

'Tell me what you need.' He said with a kind voice.

'I need two things to disappear; a crime scene at the old terminal of Sultan Ismail Petra Airport and myself.'

'The bombing right?' Berthold had eyes and ears everywhere. 'Consider it done. Go to Kuala Lumpur, meet up with Reiner, he'll take care of you. I'll make sure he'll have a fake ID, cash, and a gun ready for you. As for the Airport, I will send people as of immediate. It will look like nothing ever happened.'

'Thank you. I will wire money to your account by tonight.'

'Pleasure doing business with you Ms Leonhardt.' The call ended after that. no goodbye's no goodluck's. It almost felt like Berthold was a connection, not a friend.

She pulled out the card Levi had given her and her face grimaced. It read; 'Survey Corps' and was paired with a pair of wings, one of the purest white, and the other blue as the sky. On the otherside stood but a number. No name, nothing.

She'd heard of the group before and all those stories she'd heard were not ones she'd like to know. They were a group of world class agents, assasins -you name it they have it- and surveyed the entire planet. If you've heard about some large historical fact, or a sudden end of a war, they were behind it. The CIA, FBI, MI6, all the international high end stuff, belonged to them. It frightend her.

Things didn't look too well for Armin and Eren. It might be that just this time, they'd worked themselves into such deep trouble the boy's would drown.

She pulled out her phone one final time and texted; 'Beware of the Survey Corps.' And pressed send. She hoped Armin would find out a way to stay out of danger.

* * *

Levi arrived at his hotel after a short drive. He thanked and paid the cab driver, tipping him generously. During his ride he'd e-mailed Hanji, sending her the pictures, information, and his request – her coming here. She's replied almost instantly saying is all caps; 'YES. THIS IS SO AWSOME!' that was the whole damned e-mail. A few seconds later she'd send him a text message; "Boarding plane in a few hours! Ltr kiddo!" he shrugged at that message. He could so kiss his vacation goodbye. He needed to book her a room, because he knew she'd forget that when she got all excited. Her flight from Heathrow Airport, London would take about fourteen hours if she was lucky. Hanji would have to transfer in Frankfurt, Germany if she took the same flight as him.

'I guess I can officially wave my vacation goodbye.' He groaned as he made for the lobby of the Perdana Kota Bharu Hotel. The lobby clearly stated it was a 5-star hotel, which was good, because Levi never took anything less than the full star rate. It wasn't because he could afford it, because he could easily, and not because he was a spoiled brat and related good quality goods with ridiculously high prices, by he was lightly diagnosed with an OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder, he was a clean freak. He hated beach resorts for the sand. He hated bungalows in the jungle because, bugs. Yes. It was quite bad for a skilled assassin to be a clean freak, but to him it was part of him. Something he learned to live with through time.

The man at the front desk welcomed him with a warm smile. 'Welcome sir, to the Perdana Kota Bharu Hotel. How can I be of service?' and bowed. Now this was nice. He handed the man behind the desk his passport and a printout of his booking.

'I have made a reservation.'

'Good day mister Rivaille.' He said as he scanned his passport and quickly went to work on his computer. After some beeps the man handed him his key card. 'Room 245 is all yours; you will find it on the fourth floor. The elevators are to your right.' He motioned at the golden doors not far from them. 'Do you need assistance with your luggage sir?'

Levi shook his head. 'No, thank you.'

'Have a pleasant stay sir.'

The last victim still occupied his mind as he walked through the classy hallways. He came to a stop at the room 245, his room, and swiped the key card past the electronic door lock. It opened with a heavy click and he pushed the door open wider so he could walk inside. He was met by pleasant cool air, indicating the air-conditioning was on. He ignored the room for now, he'd inspect it later.

He grabbed his laptop and searched for the two coins on the eyes. Sure, Ms Leonhardt had explained it to him, but she didn't know all the details, and it may just be, that those details held a key to the doctor's death. Levi had to keep all options open.

The Internet showed him that it was indeed part of a Greek myth. Hades was the god of the underworld, what the Greeks called the place the souls of the dead transferred to. This place had five rivers, one of them being the river Styx. Dead souls had to cross it once they left the realm of the living and the only way to do so was by Charon's boat, the ferryman. The ancient Greeks put coins on the eyes of their deceased so they could pay the boatman to ensure safe passage, and would not be left behind. If one did not have payment, the souls would wander the banks of the Styx for a hundred years, or be sent to Tartarus.

_Superstitious bullshit. _Levi sighed as he read through the myths. Even though it seemed all kind off stupid, he took some notes in his leather notebook and closed his eyes.

_So this person who'd done this ridicules coin thing knew Dr Carolina and escaped. So would it be safe to assume she knew that person too? This bomber it a nutter. Who believes in this shit? Or is it the thought that counts? Did this person felt some sort of guilt? And was this the best thing he or she could do for her in such a short time? I don't know what Hanji will say about this, but one thing is for sure, she'd always had heart for the occult. It is complete bull, but she's a weirdo herself so I think it matches quite well. _

_Okay, so about the doctor. _He continued his search, taking another direction, named Mina Carolina. He remembered Annie say she lived nearby. He sent Hanji a quick message to see if she could find the address for him and turned his attention towards his computer.

'Let's see what they say about you, miss Mina.' He murmured to himself while he typed in her name in a search engine. He cursed when he couldn't find all he wanted. He'd have to get in touch with Hanji for a full background check, but he was sure she was on it already.

He skimmed through some articles about her profession. She seemed to be some Meteorologist. _You can get a PHD in that?_ he cocked his brow.

'Weather patterns, Weather… bla bla…' he clicked his tongue and tapped his fingers on the wooden desk when he read through hoards of information concerning her job. 'Specialty ancient meteorology.' Now that was unusual.

This was all some vague shit. He knew world history was important, but why research the weather back in the day? It didn't make much sense to him. Why would something like that get her killed? Or was it about something else? Maybe she had picked a fight with the wrong people, but one look at her picture told him she was a decent girl that no way in hell would look for trouble. She looked like the type of girl that would remain invisible through high school, or practically any school. _What were you doing there little miss? And why did you get yourself killed? _He was distracted by his phone, which vibrated on the table top, buzzing, begging for attention.

He checked the device; it was a message. It was from Hanji and he didn't like what it said one bit.

"Hey vacation's over. Erwin is putting you and me on a mission. See you in 14h."

'God damn it!' He slammed his fists hard on the desk, hearing some of the fragile joints crack. When he stood up, his chair clattered to the ground and he flipped the tiny desk over. He didn't care if he killed his laptop, he didn't care if he wrecked the whole shitty building, no one, and I mean no one, parted Levi and his holidays. He was sure the sound was loud enough to be heard on the hallway and he couldn't careless what people thought of him. He scoffed when he heard some commotion from behind his hotel door. Someone had heard. _Well, fuck you too!_ He thought, glaring daggers at the piece of wood in the distance. He directed his attention back towards his desk. Items were spread over the dark red carpet, his laptop still in one piece, luckily. He rubbed his hand from his face into his black hair in annoyance and he gripped his hand full with locks.

This was the first time in years Levi had vacation. He'd always been in the field for the last five years, he'd always been there for the Corps, but when he needed just two weeks of, just two stinking weeks… he groaned and kicked a lost hotel notebook across the room, where it helplessly fluttered to the ground, but not before losing almost all the pages it contain.

'I hate you Erwin.' He mumbled more to the mess the notebook had left behind than at the man himself, but that didn't mean he didn't hate him at all; Because he did. Almost with all his heart. At the moment. No, maybe always.

* * *

'This doesn't look too good.' Armin whined when the streets behind them lit up by police alarm lights.

'Where are we going?' Armin asked.

'Hotel Perdana Kota Bharu. It's not far from here, only 20 – 30 minutes, because we side-tracked. A lot.' By know they'd seen more of the Kota Bharu than they wanted to admit and any second longer in this car would mean one thing; cops. And loads of them by the sound of it.

'Why?' Armin shifted in his seat.

'It's where Mina stayed.'

'But she lives near here. Why'd she have a room?'

'Don't ask me. Maybe she needed some space. Who knows. You know her better than I do.' Eren huffed as he watched traffic signs go by.

'We only started working, or… discussing theories about two weeks ago. She showed me her work and it is truly amazing.'

'You're such a nerd.'

'And… what?' Armin caught on before he continued.

'What?'

'And it shows that meteorology is a very interesting study indeed.'

'Hm.' Eren snorted, still not entirely convinced. The subject of Mina made his humour go downward, and he found himself caught again in a spiral of torment.

Armin sensed that Eren became less responsive, not even throwing nerdy jokes about. The whole event had left him scarred in a way and he was certain it wasn't something Eren deserved. 'Let's just get rid of this car.' They had other things to worry about and he needed an Eren that was in top shape.

'Ah, yeah. Sure.' He still sounded a bit distant but there was that lively spark in his eyes. He steered the car of the main road and into a alley. He pulled to a stop behind some trashcans and looked at Armin. 'We'll have to find some other means of transportation or are you fine with walking? I figure it's still hot as fuck outside, but we'd better get going. We don't want to be seen in this car. Come on.' He got out of the car and just as he wanted to walk away, he turned around, back to the car.

'What are you doing?'

'You said you didn't have any money. Neither have I, I bet he has some.'

'Eren, we already hijacked his car! You can't steel his money too!' he hissed between clenched teeth.

'Oh, yes I can. Watch me.' He found about 365,21 Malaysian Ringgit on the cabby –Yes he took even the bloody 21 cents- which was about 80 Euro's, for Eren still counted in that currency since his previous jobs had been in several of its countries.

'Well, this will certainly help.' He stuffed the money in his jeans pocket. He grabbed the man's mobile phone and took the keys from the ignition.

'What are you going to do with those?' Armin sounded annoyed and surprised, it the mix sounded odd to Eren's ears, especially coming from his blond friend.

'This?' he dangled the phone between his slim fingers, grabbed it in a fist and smashed it onto the concrete. If that wasn't enough the kicked the mobile against the nearest wall, walked over to the remaining wreck and stamped on it with his marvellous All Star. 'So he won't call the cops as soon as he wakes up. Buy's us time.' He had a don't-you-know-that look plastered on his face 'And as for this.' He held up the keys and jingled them around, iron clattered against iron as he did that.

'You're going to burry them in the desert so he won't run us over?'

'No, but that's a damned fine idea, even if it was meant as a disrespectful joke.' He walked to the trunk of the car. 'No I wanna see if he has additional stuff we could use.'

'Oh my god, Eren. You look like a god damned robber!' Armin jumped as he heard the sirens sing their song. They were near and he stood on edge. 'Hurry up!'

Eren opened the trunk and his eyes widened at what he saw. The contents included; a flashlight, a rope, a pocketknife (why that was in the trunk Eren did not know, it was actually something to keep in your boot or something), several plastic bags, duck tape, and a shovel.

'Fuck me.' Eren whispered. 'Dude, this guy was a nutcase.' And than he laughed. He took one of the plastic bags and put the piece of rope, flashlight, and pocketknife inside. 'Too bad we can't take the shovel.' He joked. Armin was at a loss of words. He didn't want to know what a person would do with those lovely items in the back of his car.

'Are you thinking about his sweet hobby, Armin?' Eren smirked when he caught the shocked look on his face.

'You think he's… you know… a kidnapper?'

'I dunno, all I think is it's fucked up to have these things in your trunk when the cops are on your heels. That reminds me. Let's get out of here.' He slapped his hand against Armin shoulder, in a come-on-follow-me kind of way.

When the emerged from behind the junk, and onto the side walk of a busy shopping street Eren studied Armin. 'Aren't you melting in that getup?' he was referring to Armin's long khaki pants, his white blouse and a deep blue spencer. 'You look like one of those schoolboys in Japan or England. Uniform and all.' He laughed as he pulled at Armin's spencer.

'Rude.' Armin freed his spencer by swatting Eren's hand away. 'Yes it's warm yes. But, I never expected all this to happen. I thought after the meeting at the airport, we'd go to a restaurant or my apartment. That means aircon! Instead of all that, I am stuck here in this heat, with you.'

'Sucks to be you then.'

'How far are we from that hotel?' Armin choose to ignore Eren as they walked down the street.

'I have no idea.' Eren admitted. 'But he might.' He ran towards a man dressed in a neat black suit, presuming them man was out on business and knew his way around the city quite well.

'Sir! Can I ask you something?' he asked politely. When the man turned around he appeared to be a native and smiled when he saw the boy's shirt. 'Ah, yeah.' Eren said. _Déjà vu. _He remembered his reencounter with Levi, a handsome raven-haired man earlier today. _Okay, this is not the moment to be drooling over some dude_. He asked for directions and the man gladly guided him through the labyrinth that was Kota Bharu. He thanked the man after his explanation and walked back to Armin.

'We're not that far off.' His phone beeped as he said that and he wormed his phone from his pocket, checking the message he'd received. 'It's from Berthold.' He stared at Armin with a slightly nervous look on his face. 'I think he knows we've been talking to Annie.'

Quickly Armin took out his phone as well. 'I don't have a message from him, but I do have one of Annie.' There never was much contact between the tight group of friends, and if there was, it meant trouble, usually money trouble since they all had a shared account. They hadn't heard of Mikasa, Connie, Sasha, Jean, Marco, Reiner, Krista, and Ymir. But they guessed it was only a matter of time before they did. They'd already come in contact with Annie and Berthold in such a short notice already.

It had been a long, long time since they'd last seen each other. It was two years ago when all of them were together. They were known as the Ecuador 11 -the lost children- to the government, but they called themselves the _Titans_.

When Eren was about seven years old his mother came to pass, his father he'd never known. He lived in Ecuador at the time and was moved to a small church-like-orphanage, where he soon found Armin and Mikasa. Other kids around his age came in too and the family grew to a total of eleven kids. When the owner passed away leaving the kids to fend for them selves at age thirteen, Eren decided that from now on they were family and would stay together. Ever since they have been on the road stealing, deceiving, and bribing for their own sake, and by the age of seventeen they'd build up a vast network of connections. They could get bigger jobs, earn more money, and do the unspeakable. Some of them, such as Armin, studied, and others focussed on getting food, money, weapons, all they needed. Each grew into a special function. But the jobs drew to much attention, unwanted attention. Eyes were on them they didn't want. They started to dive into the antiquities business, as treasure hunters. This helped them get of the grid, but still make money.

However even in that business after a while they became well known and every time they would meet up someone knew and issued an attack on them; at least that's what they thought. Every time more than seven of them were together horrible accidents happened. They had long discussed this matter and it was better they travelled in groups of two or three, but never more. They didn't even dare to stay in touch, afraid of the many ears this cruel world could have. And here they found themselves at number… four.

'What does Annie say?' Eren asked, trying to postpone the message send by Berthold.

'Um. Let me see.' Armin opened the message. 'It only says; "Beware of the Survey Corps." Really. That's all it says.' He said as Eren looked at him confused.

'Beware of the Survey Corps?' he tasted the words on his lips. 'Survey Corps, Survey Corps.' He repeated as if the name should ring a bell. He was sure he'd forgotten about something important. 'Nah… no. I don't think I've heard of it.' He sounded unsure. 'Hm, I'll dig into that later.' He returned his attention towards his own phone. 'Alright, let's get this over with.' Berthold's message was displayed.

_Hello,_

_I know you travel with Armin, so say hi to him for me will you._

_I've spoken with Annie about your issues and it will be taken care off._

_Meet up with her and Reiner in Kuala Lumper in two days, more details will follow._

_We need to get together again._

_You know this too._

_Berthold_

_Ps. Say hi to Jean for me._

Eren finished reading the message. 'I don't like this, but Bert must know what he's talking about.' _Say hi to Jean? What the fuck does that mean?_

'Why does he say, "you know this too?" I don't get it.' Armin scratched the bridge of his nose and his eyes portrait confusion. Eren didn't like it when Armin felt uneasy; it usually paired with really nasty circumstances.

'Hm. I think someone is trying to terminate us like bugs.' He watched Armin trying to formulate some sort of answer, but the blond remained silent. 'We used to think we had more chance staying alive if we parted ways.' He waited till Armin nodded. 'Well, I have been thinking about it for a while now, maybe, just maybe it's better to get the group back together again and we might have a better shot at life. I know fucked up stuff happens when we meet up, but, honestly, we dived into every mystery the world had to offer as a group. We got stuff done. Imagine what we could do if we all worked on this case together. Wouldn't that be great? You, Berthold and Marco were so great at mapping things out, figuring out puzzles and such. Sasha and Connie were amazing with ancient traps, constructions and whatnot. Ymir and Krista knew more about dead languages then the entire Internet. Annie, Reiner, Jean, Mikasa, and me, we… we were unstoppable. Why can't things go back the way they were?'

'I… I don't know, but sometimes, they just can't.' It was a simple and short reply, but right now Eren didn't know if he could handle complicated stuff.

They walked rest of the way in silence; each thinking of their past.

When they walked into the 5-star hotel their eyes grew wide and their lips parted as they walked into a room filled with treasure.

'Hotel's like this should be illegal.' Eren stared around him. He pulled out Mina's key card and studied it, searching for the room number. 'Shit. It's not on here.'

'What? Wait, do you still have the paper?'

'What paper?'

'The one that usually comes with it.'

'Uh, no.'

'Oh.'

'Relax.' Eren said as he walked up to the lobby. 'Hello, good afternoon.' He leaned against the desk while he was greeted back. 'Can you help me? My friend lost her key card, but I forgot her room number. I would like to return it to her.' he winked at Armin who stood behind him.

'Of course, sir. Would you like me to bring it to her?'

'Ah, no that's not necessary, I would like to surprise her myself. She doesn't know we're here you see.'

'Of course.' He held out his hand. 'The card please so I can scan it for the room number.'

'Sure. Here.' He handed the man the card. It took a short moment for the man to find what they were looking for. He eyes Eren and Armin suspiciously; clearly he was well acquainted with Mina. Eren took it she had the room for quite some time; maybe she was a regular here.

'Ah Mina doesn't know we're here.' He quickly said. 'I hope she isn't out.' He laughed stupidly, secretly hoping the man would buy his pathetic acting skills. He did apparently, when he was met with one of the brightest smiles he'd ever seen. He kind of worried he'd go blind. Luckily for Eren, the man's teeth weren't the purest of white. _Yeah, you can close your mouth now._

'Room 247.' The man said, still all smiles. 'I haven't seen her leaving today. She's still in the hotel if not in her room.'

'Ah. Thanks.' Eren said as he took back the key card that was handed to him. He waved the man behind the desk goodbye.

'Someone should give you an Oscar.' Armin laughed.

'I should be awarded at least a hundred for that over there.' he eyed Armin. 'I had to look at him and not die.'

'That's… incredibly insensitive of you.'

'Come on. 247. 247. Elevator. 247.' Eren hummed as he searched for the elevators. 'Oh, golden elevators, of course. That's… kitsch.' He pressed one of the matching golden buttons.

'Do you know what floor?' Armin asked.

'Nope, but I'm guessing the highest one, number four.'

'I amazes me how fast you learn about your surroundings.'

'Well. Your surrounds might well one day save your life. Observe. No harms done in observing. You'll just look like you're eying this ridiculous interior.' He said as he slapped his hand against the door of the elevator.

They got on as it arrived and pressed the button leading to the fourth floor. There was typical lounge music playing in the oddly fashioned space. There were mirrors on almost every side including the ceiling. The rest was decorated with wood painted with gold and red. Kitsch how Eren had put it, was just a soft expression. This place was over the top.

They walked in the long empty hallway, over a thick red carpet, which dimmed their footsteps. Eren took careful note of that. _This sucks. Hello surprise attacks. _He thought sarcastically.

They watched room numbers pass by either side of them. Eren pursed his lips scanning every sign like numbers were scrambled. It made no sense, but he wanted to be sure not to skip her room. This was too important.

'Almost there.' Eren hummed excited when his eyes fell on number 243, the two boys walked on, quickening their steps as they were pushed forward by curiosity.

Eren nearly jumped right out of his skin when there was a loud smashing sound heard in the room beside him. Armin wasn't doing much better, his face had grown incredibly pale and his blue eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.

'… The fuck was that?' Eren hissed between his teeth. The crash had seemed to come from room 245. Eren stared at the door 'Fucking nutcase! Antisocial bastard! Gnome on a freaking st-'

'Eren!' Armin pulled his arm. 'Let's go! You're not acting better than the loon from that room. Let's go.' _Hey, that rhymes. Way to go Armin._ And his attention was elsewhere.

He didn't argue with that and let Armin pull him forward while he still had his eyes glued on the door of 245. He flicked his middle finger up at it as if the person behind it would be immensely offended by his action. And if that didn't? Well, brave Eren decided to stick out his tongue too, very heroic.

'Here it is.' Armin said, pulling Eren out of his insulting tasks. The blond looked at him, waiting for him to open the door. There was a do-not-disturb sign on the doorknob. Eren wondered how long it had been there. Had it ever been removed? Did she leave it there permanently? If so, was she hiding something in this room? Eren scratched the corner of his mouth lazily. _But, if she's hiding something here… No, it doesn't make sense, why here? It's not like it's a good hiding place. It's way too public._

'Whatever is behind that door…' Eren's voice slightly trembled.

'Yeah I know…' Armin agreed.

They both tensed up a little when Eren swiped the key card past the slot and they grew impatient when the lock popped open.

'Here we go.' Eren grinned at Armin as he pushed open the heavy door.

As soon as they stepped inside they were met with cool air, not that it wasn't warm on the hall or anything, it was just this room was so much more… cold?

Eren pushed through the first part of the hotel room, there was nothing of importance on the way to the living room, he stepped around the corner and his mouth nearly dropped open.

'Armin…' he gasped. 'You need to see this.'

**Note;** There will be more about Eren's past in later chapters, since it's quite important for the development of the storyyyy~

I hope you have all enjoyed it! Please review, I like to know how I'm doing and if I should make any alterations or… whateverrrr.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for the reviews people =) I really hope you will continue reading this story, I know it is totally different from my other story but still =)

I totally failed to nail my 7K+ mark but ah well, I wanted to end the chapter with a nice... uh... cliffhanger hahaha

Fixed some mistakes, maybe I should stop writing at 3 in the morning =0 hahaha thank you Brightestwitchofherage16 for pointing them out, when I read your review i was like... whaaatttt, that are some stupid mistakes haha~ so thank you hun~ 3

Enjoy~

* * *

**The Antiquities Acquisitions Business**

_**Chapter 3**_

Eren and Armin stood amidst a room filled with maps, charts, pictures and documents. There were about a million reports lying on several desks, forming high stockpiles of paper several feet in the air.

The maps on the wall, were accompanied by small noted, scribbles and pictures. Lines of red thread connected the map with the additional information around it.

This was amazing.

Eren walked towards on of the maps. 'What did you ask her to research?' his voice trembled as his fingers touched the old wrinkled map, his finger tracing one of the red lines up to a photo of an all to familiar ship. The Flor de la Mar. "This is amazing."

"I asked her to research several ships that sunk due to storms from 1500 to 1600." He too gazed through the room. "I just never expected that… it would be so many."

"But we don't know, if they have sunk or disappeared, right?"

"Not yet." Armin smiled. He was so eager to read all of those papers. He picked one up from a small desk near the window. "It looks like her life's work, all cramped up in this room."

Eren threw his backpack on the floor and pulled out his black leather notebook. He found a pen on the same desk where Armin was currently reading through some reports and hurried back towards the information covered walls. Eren was always one more for maps and pictures and unclear notes, which were more for Mina herself than for any other to understand, than reports and other boring documentation. Those were more Armin's piece of cake.

"Ah, look at this!" Eren nearly squealed, he could be any happier than he was now, and quickly scribbled some things in his notebook. He tore a picture from the wall and showed it to Armin. "Look." He said again, too happy for his own good. A wicked grin on his lips. "She didn't single anything out. This is the New Spain Flota -The New Spain Fleet- of captain and general Juan Velasco de Barrio… ah man. This is amazing." He gasped. "Armin. Six ships supposing sunk by a freak storm. Do you remember the story? Uh… 1567, they were sailing from Veracruz back to Spain when they received word that they were two… or... I dunno, English ships waiting to intercept them on their voyage. They took an unusual road back and were struck by a storm near Puerto Rico. Six ships sunk. They couldn't turn around to retrieve the lost treasure, they forgot the exact location and there were no survivors of those lost ships."

"Six ships." Armin whispered as if he were in trance. "Six ships." He said again now with more power in his voice. "What was the name again?"

"Uh. New Spain Flota. 1567." Eren repeated quickly and turned his attention back to the wall. It was a sight he couldn't get enough of. He pursed his lips and tilted his head. If anything, he looked like a visitor in some fine art galley, enjoying beautiful paintings and other wonderful objects.

Armin searched the desk for reports with a matching name. It took him quite some time to find several documents. He shoved the heavy wooden chair back a little and sat down, opening bundles of paper. He looked like a scholar in a never-ending library, some would call it heaven, some hell. For Eren it was most definatly the latter.

In the meantime Eren scribbled down more pieces of information in his note book, copying the most important pieces and occasionally took pieces of paper, maps, and other doodles off the wall and stuffed them into his little book. He walked back to his backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

"Hey, is there anything like… tape around here?"

Armin looked up from the reports and glanced over the desk. "Oh here's some." He picked up the tape and tossed it to Eren. 'Catch!'

"Thanks." Eren said as he caught it and began taping some of the pieces into his notebook. "This place is…" he started when he was busy stuffing his book. "I didn't know she did all this."

"I know. It's amazing right."

Eren laughed when he saw Armin sitting in the chair behind a desk full of stacks of paper, in the sunlight that peered through the window. "Don't you look right at home?" He laughed at the sight.

"I wish this was my home." Armin scoffed, not looking up from the document he was reading as it was too interesting to put down.

"I can understand why she put everything here." Eren glanced around the room once more. The extent of her research was enormous. "I don't think this would have fit in either her house, or her meteorology lab, office, I don't know what she has. Had." He corrected himself. The word stung. Had. She was no more. He would make sure he'd never forget that again. _And it's easier to keep it separate, and… secret._ _But still… a hotel room is too risky. Too public. What if someone else finds this information? What if the wrong people found this? The same from the airport. _Eren's expression darkened when he thought back at those moments. Reliving those memories, reliving loosing Mina. He cursed in silence and ran a hand through his brown locks. They needed to make sure nobody found this room, or make it so it was gone. But burning down the place would attract attention. That, and the fact that Eren had given away his lighter. _I should stop flirting. It bits me in the ass every single time. Fuck._ He looked around, opening some cabinets and found a box of matches from the hotel. _Score. That was surprisingly easy._ Not that Eren mind.

"Ah! Found it." Armin's voice sounded through the room after minutes of absolute silence. "Just like Flor de la Mar the Spanish Fleet was caught in a freak storm, or so it was claimed, however scientific research shows that none of the factors present could cause such a storm. It could produce soft breezes and cold temperatures at night at most. The ships did not sank because of a storm, since there wasn't any." Armin read aloud. "And at the side… here, and… uh here." He pointed at the report as he held it out for Eren to see "…are some of charts and weather pattern's during that period."

"That text looks very hard to read." Eren stared at the papers with a grim face.

"I simplified it… a bit." Armin admitted.

"Are you saying I'm a retard? And I wouldn't have understood otherwise?"

"Not in those words per se." Armin laughed, and warned Eren not to hit him.

"Be careful you." Eren pointed his index finger at Armin, warning him in a playful manner. He saw a flash of fear cross those bright blue eyes. He laughed and he saw Armin relax considerably. "Joking, remember."

"Yeah…" Armin sighed escaping his streak of fear. "I know. But sometimes you're so intense."

That comment made Eren laugh. He'd heard that many times before. "I thought you knew me well enough." It was always the eyes. He'd heard that too many times before.

"I thought I did too, but here we are." Armin said as he continued reading the papers. "There's too much."

"Do you think she had a laptop or something? A notebook? At least something with some kind of summary…" Eren mumbled his question, rubbing his chin as if he had a beard. "I'm going to search the room. You just stay here."

"Hm. Sure." Was all he got from the blond. Eren chuckled when he saw that Armin had his head practically buried in the report, reading it closely. Very closely, in more ways than one.

He left the living area and stepped into a small kitchen, he passed through that too when he didn't see what he wanted, and continued towards the bedroom. He stood in front of the door and swallowed deep before entering. He felt like he was trespassing, but he knew he needed to search the room. His hand went up to the metal knob, his fingers clutched around it, and breathed in slowly before turning the knob and pushing the door open.

And eerie feeling hung in the room as he stepped inside. He knew it was all in his head. _I know I did all I could… but still…_

He felt like he was trespassing. He was in a place where he didn't belong. Everything felt wrong and it made him feel nauseous. His limbs grew heavy and his sight dimmed tremendously. He felt like he was about to faint. The air was too thick for breathing easily; the room was too dark to see without narrowing his green eyes. He stumbled inside and steadied himself by leaning against a slim desk not too far into the room. His hand hit something off the tabletop and a soft thud followed as it hit the ground. Eren looked down and found a small black booklet on the floor. He reached down to pick it up. When he held it up high enough he noticed it was some kind of notebook. _Is this…?_

He took a moment and sat down on the soft double bed in the middle of the rather large room. He opened the small booklet and found it was what he'd hoped for. It contained notes, some pictures, and some random scribbles, which didn't seem to make too much sense. At least, not right now.

Eren discovered that halfway the booklet the notes stopped; the other half was empty, untouched. His eyes fell on the last note she'd scribbled down.

_A. Arlette_

_Airport, April 20__th_

_Call Thomas about dinner_

Eren whispered the last part. _He doesn't know. He doesn't know about her death, about his wife's death… _ he slapped the book shut and buried his face in the palm of his hands, booklet still in hand. He didn't hear footsteps approaching.

"Eren, are you feeling alright?" Armin asked his now awfully pale friend. _Shit, this doesn't look good. _Armin thought while he stood up straight. "You wait here. I'm going to ask if they have some medicine downstairs. Take it easy and don't do anything stupid while I'm out. Okay?" he got a sloppy nod for an answer. _That'll have to do for now._ "I'll be right back." The blond had no idea what to do. Was Eren really feeling sick all of a sudden?

"No, I… I'm fine…" but when he looked up, he found Armin gone. He started to wonder if he'd spoken those words or if they were all in his mind. Either way, Eren found himself alone in a room, in some hotel, in a country far from home.

* * *

Levi scanned his room with pursed lips, judging the cleanness of if all. He swept his finger along the windowpanes and his lips formed a thin line when he pulled up his index finger and found it covered in dust. "Tsk, they call this cleaning." He said with great distaste. "Guess the saying 's true then. There's no place like home."

Back in England, Levi's rather large apartment was spotless. Hanji had once complained that it reminded her of a hospital. Too bad for her, it was his house, and that meant his rules. He walked up to the mini kitchen and washed his hands with soap. As he dried his hands on the soft towel his phone beeped his usual message tone. He looked back at the previous room where he'd left it on the small table near the window. He walked into the room, still drying his hands. When they were dry enough the tossed it on the couch nearby and took his phone in his now clean hands. He also grabbed an odd looking bottle next to it and gave it a few good squeezes, filling the air with bacteria killing substances. When he looked down he found the screen was lit up and showed Hanji's name.

Levi opened the message and his eyes grew wide.

_Hey! I'm boarding now! But I found something REALLY interesting and you have to check it out right away! You said you stayed at the Perdana Kota Bharu Hotel, right? Well guess what, so was Mina Carolina. Room 247. Go now!_

_Cheers dear! Xx_

"What…?" it took a moment before it all made sense. _Dr. Carolina… stayed at this hotel? 247? Wait… 247? _He checked the message again, and again. His eyes weren't playing tricks on him. She was staying two rooms down the hall. "Tsk…" he clicked his tongue as his eyes fell on his bag. No… she was staying in the room next to him.

He pulled his badge and trusted handgun from his luggage. He weighted his Beretta Model 93C in his hands to get used to it again. It was a good choice bringing it along. He preferred this type of pistol since it had two firing modes, a single shot mode and a three round burst shot. He often found himself in situation where he needed a semi automatic gun, and he never knew when those types of gunfire were required. He liked to play safe. This choice also included keeping the same gun for a longer period of time, as far as Levi knew, these guns were out of production. A classic.

Levi checked his ammunition and marched to the door, which he opened and closed swiftly but not before taking his hotel key card and stuffing the gun in the back of his jeans where it was gracefully covered by his blouse.

When at Dr. Mina's room, which was literally a few steps from his own door, he pressed his ear against the dark wood, listening attentively if someone else might be in the room. _Nothing. Of course there's no one, she's dead for Christ sake._

He found the door shut, giving it a few pushes got him nowhere and he brought one of his hands up to his mouth, pinching his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger. "Shit…" he mumbled. "… was expecting that. Let's see how strong these doors are." He glanced around the hallway and strangely enough he didn't spot any security cameras. "No CCTV huh? Nice. Let's see if the security here runs a tight ship." He kicked the door hard short after. The strong wood didn't bulge.

"Fuck." He said as he pulled out his gun and fired a round at the key card lock and kicked with just as much force right after. The door burst open. _Well, someone must have heard that. I give myself ten minutes max. _And he stepped inside.

Levi didn't bother to close the door behind him and quickly made way to the living room, gun raised, extended before him. He held it with both hands, no finger on the trigger, in an extension of his limbs. It was a second nature to him. The gun was part of him.

This room had the exact same setup as his own across the hall; he noticed that in an instant. Good, at least he knew the layout.

His keen eyes peered through the room and a chill ran down his spine as he swore he heard something from the bedroom. _Was that a whisper?_ His muscles tensed and the hair in the back of his neck stood up. _Who's there?_ He was certain he heard something, no someone, and he slowly walked towards the bedroom, gun raised, flipping the safety pin off, and slowly placed his finger on the trigger. He was ready.

Levi slowed his breathing, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth. Levi tiptoed into unknown territory.

* * *

Why was the door open? Blue eyes grew wide. _Why? How? I'm sure I closed it._ "What's going on?" terror slipped into the blonde's heart as he feared for his friend. _No, I'm sure I closed the door. Yes. I did. I did! _Determination crept back into his being and he walked up to the now open hotel room. It took only one quick look to discover he had to run as fast as he could. They were not alone.

There was a bullet hole in the door, the sight sent shivers down his spine and made him think horrible things. Someone had opened it by force, and that someone was in the room right now, with Eren. And more important, that person had a gun, a loaded gun.

Armin stood outside, not really sure what to do. He had to warn Eren, yes, he did. But how was he going to do that? He had no gun, no weapon, no nothing. Who was he kidding, he wasn't even good in a fight, in any fight for that matter, save one of knowledge of course, but Eren never really counted that as a fight. _I should stop reading and start paying attention to… ah, I can't believe this… I gotta pay more attention to what Eren says. I should handle more of these type of situations… shit. What should I do… no what can I do? What. Can. I. Do? _

He pressed himself against the wall like a gecko, his back against the warm red painted walls. He peeked around the doorpost only to find the small hallway empty. Armin couldn't help but tremble. He was frightened to the core. He wanted to save Eren, he really did. His bottom lip quivered when he knew he wouldn't stand a chance and it made him feel like absolute shit. If he went inside, he would get himself killed. _But… I can't just leave him…_

Armin pulled out his phone. _I could call him… nah. Stupid idea. _So instead he send a simple message and hoped that either the intruder wouldn't hear, or Eren had his phone on silent.

M.P.

Was all it said when he pressed send. He knew that if Eren wouldn't be able to make it out alive, no one would understand the message. M.P. was like an abbreviation for My Place, something Eren had introduced in the early years of the Titans. Every member knew what it meant, and that was all that mattered.

He quickly glanced around. _There must be something I can do?_ He smiled faintly when he spotted a vase on a table he guessed was way too expensive. He grabbed it without a second thought and made his way back to the room. He lifted the fragile object above his head and hurled it inside. Armin turned on his heel immediately, not even waiting for the vase to hit the ground, and started running as fast as his legs could carry him. Right now, he needed not to get caught.

* * *

Eren had no idea what had happened, everything had gone way to fast for his depressed brain to process. Just now he sat on the bed with Armin talking to him, than he was in the middle of the room –Alone, yes very much alone- and finally he found himself standing outside on a thin ledge four stories high, like he was some kind of suicidal bastard with a shitty wife and a hundred kids he knew nothing about. Oh, he probably used a shitload of drugs to in that life.

As soon as he heard a gunshot feral instinct took over. Eren had retreated back into the bedroom without making a sound, clinging as much to the shadows as he could during the day. He dashed towards the window beside the bed and opened it, but not before cursing the damned thing for being the rusty piece of pathetic shit it was. Yanking at the thing only made things worse and he wanted to bash his skull against the wall so bad he muffled a groan. "Come on…"

And bow! He was outside. _Great. Now what?_ _It seemed like such a good idea at the time… but now?_ He looked down. _Shit the trick it to not look down you baboon!_ And he looked down again. _Shit!_

He tried to close the window behind him, still clinging to the wall but decided it was safer for it to stay open, since he almost fell down, once, okay maybe twice without doing anything in particular. If he was going to close the window he was going to make quite the impression on the people below, and not in a good way. Excuse him, but Eren didn't like falling face first into concrete from four floors high. As mentioned before, his goal was about 80 years of life, and that didn't include smashing into the pavement.

He had completely pressed his back against the hotel's outer walls. The wind softly wheezed through his chestnut locks. Even though the wind did a great job pushing out the immense heat Eren couldn't help but sweat like a hooker in church. He wasn't a great fan of falling, and certainly not from these heights.

The toes of his shoes surpassed the edges of the slim ledge, making his toes curl. _Ah shit. This is scary._ And the worst part of all was, that downstairs was nothing more than a parking lot, filled with black and silver cars, one more boring than the other. The pool was on the other side, just his luck. But… maybe better? At least there weren't a large potential of people that could see someone standing where one shouldn't stand, and more clearly wouldn't want to stand. That would be quite a hassle. Thank the gods for boring parking lots.

His head snapped in the direction of the window when he heard something break. _What is happening in there? _He wanted to take a look, but he knew he had to get away from the window. If the person that was inside would take a look outside, well, bingo, he was busted. And said person would also have a choice of shooting him in the face or… shoot him in the leg and he'd fall to his doom. Both choices didn't appeal to him. And so curiosity didn't kill a cat that day, the cat was thankful, and so was Eren.

Eren crept along the thin edge searching for that one open window that would save him from this hell. Luckily he found the window of the room next door open. "Ah, thank the gods!" he wheezed when he pushed himself through the small opening. He made it through in one go, his backpack included.

Eren found himself in a room of which he'd no idea if there was someone at 'home'. The place felt like it was too clean, as if Eren was contaminating the place. And, oh, that bleach like smell didn't add to the nice hotel atmosphere. "Ack… disgusting…" it was the type of smell that completely overtook your nose and settled down on the base of your tongue. Great, his next hundred meals would taste like bleach. "Fucking nasty…" whoever stayed in this room was a complete weirdo, who Eren was quite sure of, was bullied all through middle and high school, probably even college. Nah, he was sure of that. _Poor bastard._

He'd never stood outside a room faster than he did now. He dashed towards the elevator not wanting to waste another second on this floor. He didn't look behind him at all, afraid of what he might see. _Armin. I hope you're all right_. He wished_._

He pushed the button of the elevator, commanding it to close after he'd pressed the ground floor button. "Shitty machine, hurry the fuck up."

The soft lobby-like music called him down to a certain extend, but the adrenaline was hard to shake of his body. He was wide-awake and he was sure if something happened his reflexes would get the better of him. He prayed nothing out of the ordinary would take place in the next few seconds. The feeling needed to disappear as soon as possible. Right now to be exact, but often… Eren's body neglected his commands. Shit.

"Ah shit." He grabbed his phone. In all his haste he'd forgotten where Armin was. Last thing he remembered was that he went downstairs. "M.P." he read relieved. His shoulders fell, marking stress literally had fallen off. "Good boy."

But shit, he needed to take care of that room. Someone had found it. Someone broke into it. And someone was about to discover things that weren't meant for him or her to see. Eren knew he needed to go back soon and deal with the entire matter. "I'll set it on fire…" he murmured. It was a tad extreme, but who cares. Eren was never one to keep a low profile. It wasn't his style.

"Okay, now I'll just have to wait until that ass is gone. Ah… I'll go get a drink first… thirsty as fuck."

* * *

Levi clicked his tongue when he found a broken vase in the hallway of the hotel room. He'd scanned the halls soon after but found nothing. He knew that whom ever he was dealing with, was not alone. This vase proved it all. He guessed someone had thrown it inside, a second person, considering the fact that these vases were not present in his own room, nor had he seen it in this room when he entered. However, he'd seen it on the hallways. Lot's of them. And now it was here. _Why?_ He knew. _Distraction that's why_. He narrowed his teal eyes and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He stored his gun in his waistband in the small of his back. He was sure the intruder was long gone.

Levi walked through the room a little, discovering the walls were filled with files, pictures, etc. It seemed like a room of some crazy professors he'd only seen in movies, and mostly those super hero movies. He wanted nothing to do with it, but he knew he had little choice. Whoever had ordered the kill on Dr Mina, this could be the exact reason why. He took a few photos of the room.

"Hanji might really enjoy this case." _Well, at least one of us will have some fun._ He mailed them at her instantly. Not that she'd reply instantly since she was on the plane –not that she'd ever stuck to the rules- and had to shut down all network connections. Hanji was a computer geek and she'd rather have the plane go down with her, than being without the web for a few hours. It was sad, but true. She is an addict. An Internet junky. A web-head. It didn't help her favourite hero was in fact the red and blue masked vigilante himself, Spiderman.

"Fuck this. I'll get to the bottom of it later." He stretched his arms above his head, making some of his joints pop. His muscles were still a bit sore from the long flight to his so-called vacation. "Ah, shit. I need a drink." He groaned and with that in mind he made his way to the hotel bar.

He found it near empty, not that that was weird, it was kind of early, too early to hang around in a bar. Levi sat down at a small table situated near a window. He ordered nothing out of the ordinary, just a beer for now, maybe, just maybe he'd be drinking something stronger later in the evening. He settled in, leaning back in his large chair, crossing his legs and closing his eyes to enjoy the bitter taste of his beverage.

"Well, what do we have here?" a youth and cheerful voice sounded, it came in combination with the scraping sound of a chair being pulled back. "Ta-daa!" a certain brunette said excited as he sat down on the seat across the table.

"Oh, dear lord." Levi's expression remained stoic when he opened his eyes.

"You can call me Eren. You know that." The boy winked. "By the way… it seems you haven't called me yet? Is that correct?" Eren said playfully as he leaned forward, cupping his soft cheeks in his hands. A grin was plastered on his face and his eyes seemed to hold this... what was it? Levi wanted to know. Those eyes were mysterious and were dragging him in.

"So desperate for my attention? It's been what? An hour?" the raven leaned back in his chair while he took a sip of his beer.

"Maybe…" Eren said playfully. Levi laughed at the boy's boldness. He had to hand it to the kid, he was pretty god damned cute and his attitude wasn't helping either. His brown messy hair was sticking up in all directions but the right ones, but even so it fit him perfectly. The bed hair he hated with all his heart actually looked good one someone, and he didn't care. Those sea green eyes held him captive and he felt like one of those sailors lost at sea, following the songs of the sirens. Damned, he was into deep already. And he hadn't even thought about that light tan yet, or that perfect smile that was thrown in his direction. That's right in his direction.

"You haven't answered my question yet." Even his voice was smooth, playful, and absolutely splendid. He wanted to hear other sounds pore from those soft pink lips. Shit.

Levi adverted his eyes from the divine creature before him and cleared his throat. "Shitty brat. Don't get too full of yourself."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The kid's smile intensified as if he liked being talked to like that. "You do have a phone do you?" he teased and stuck out his tongue.

"I do."

"Good. Now call me."

"Demanding, aren't we?" Levi actually enjoyed being chased, and pulled out his phone, but instead of calling or texting the brat before him –because, really, that's what the little punk was- he placed the slim black machine on the table and shoved it forward, towards Eren. "Here."

"What's the point? You probably have a password." But he took the phone none the less. "And now I have your cell. What are you gonna do?" Eren stood up and pushed Levi's cell phone in the back pocket of his tight jeans and smirked when he found teal eyes on his thighs, or wait… was it a little higher? "I'm gonna get a drink, you want anything?"

Who was Levi kidding, of course he wanted something, he just didn't want a drink. Fuck a drink if you could get him instead. "Well, I don't want a drink. But I can think of something else…" his voice was deep and dark. Why did her desire this boy so? What was it about him that was just so captivating? Levi just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Oh, straight forward aren't you?"

"You're one to talk…"

"Well, one of my other perks is that I'm awkwardly cute."

Levi tilted his brow. "Awkwardly cute?" he scoffed. "Let's just keep it at awkward for now, okay?"

"Are you sure?" the boy smirked. "Cus I can swear you're totally checking me out."

"Tsk, when you're wearing a shitty shirt like that?"

"Don't worry…" Eren chuckled, his eyes half-lidded, challenging the man "I can take it off… if you want…"


End file.
